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to get started with Ubuntu Linux
UPDATED FOR
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 Linux is taking over the world and the last place it has to conquer is your
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the best place to get started. Inside this bookazine are all the guides, tutorials
and advice you need to successfully install, get started and use Ubuntu for
the first time. We’ll be holding your hand as you leave Windows behind and
get Ubuntu up and running on your home systems.
The great thing about Ubuntu and Linux is that if you want to keep things
simple, you can, but if you want to hit the bare metal and dive into the inner
workings of the operating system, you can do that, too. We’re here to guide
you into the world of Linux. We won’t pretend it’s completely easy – you need
to be prepared to look for support and ask questions – but there’s a wealth of
friendly help available from the Ubuntu and Linux communities. So what are
you waiting for? Turn the page and start your Ubuntu adventure!
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 Contents

Had enough of Windows? Looking for something new to play with?

Step into the vast world of open source and Linux – we’ve got plenty
here to keep you entertained!

Get started
If you’re not already, we’ll get
you up and running with
Ubuntu in no time.
10 What is Ubuntu?

12 Try Ubuntu in 4 minutes!

16 Ubuntu 20.04

24 Ubuntu 21.04

26 Introducing the desktop

28 Customise the desktop

Linux apps 24 Meet Ubuntu 21.04

Ubuntu comes with a library
packed full of amazing apps.
32 Install software in Ubuntu

34 Replacing Windows apps

36 Enjoy films, music and photos

page 46
38 How to edit photos

40 Start editing videos

42 Editing audio and music

44 Browse the web in safety

46 Enjoy the latest games

48

50
Get on social networks

Setting up email
46 Play games on Linux
6 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu
 Contents

Doing more
Now you have the basics down, it’s
time to try your hand at more
involved projects and tasks.
54 Dual boot two OSes

58 Run Windows programs

60 Discover the Terminal

62 Working with files

64 Set up printers and scanners

58 Run Windows programs

68 Safely backup and restore

70 How to update Ubuntu

72 Change your desktop

System settings
Now you’re using Ubuntu, here’s
page 80 how you can fix the most common
Linux issues when it goes wrong!
76 Ubuntu system settings

78 Configure your display

80 Tweak your system sound

82 Optical and removable drives

80 Tweak your audio 84

86
Wireless and wired networks

Display drivers explained

88 Anti-virus and security

90 Troubleshoot start up issues

94 How to get help

page 86

86 Graphics card drivers explained Subscribe

& save! p96
Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 7
 Get started

8 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Get started

Get
started
What is Ubuntu?............................................ 10
Try Ubuntu in 4 minutes!..............................12
Ubuntu 20.04 .................................................16
Ubuntu 21.04 ................................................24
Introducing the desktop ...............................26
Customise the desktop ................................28

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 9

 Get started

What is Ubuntu?
It’s an operating system, it’s computer freedom, it’s your gateway to open
source and a community that shares software for everyone to use.

Ubuntu versions
Like most software, Ubuntu has
released versions and code names. If
you’ve never come across Ubuntu
before then these can be a bit, erm,
unusual and confusing so let us
explain. Canonical, the company that
develops Ubuntu, releases two
versions a year and it then increases
the version number by one. The
releases are in April (04) and October
(10), so version 19.04 was released in
April 2019. The release after was 19.10
in October 2019.
Each normal release gets nine
months of support updates. Every two
years there’s a Long Term Support
(LTS) release that gets three years of
support releases. The current one is
21.04 LTS; the next will be 22.04 LTS.
If you want something more stable,
we suggest opting for one of these
releases. To add to the quirkiness,
every release gets an interesting
release name, after an animal that
cycles the alphabet for each release.
Recent names are:
16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus
16.10 Yakkety Yak
17.04 Zesty Zapus
17.10 Artful Aardvark
18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver
18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish
19.04 Disco Dingo
19.10 Eoan Ermine

I
f we say Microsoft Windows or Apple work? If you’ve seen the little penguin fellow While Linux has been developed since 1991,
macOS, you know what they are. But if we hanging around various pages and on the Ubuntu first appeared in 2004, and thanks to
say Ubuntu, are you left blank? If you’ve covers of Linux Format, his name is Tux. He’s its easy-to-approach philosophy and short six-
picked up this copy of Linux Format Presents: the mascot of the world-famous open source month development cycle, it rapidly became
Ubuntu The Complete Guide, it’s more than system called Linux. It’s the control software at the most popular open source Linux operating
possible you’ve heard of Linux, and you’ve the heart of most open source operating system in the world. Ubuntu is an operating
possibly heard of Ubuntu. If you have, then systems, such as Android and Ubuntu, and it’s system, just like Windows and macOS, but it’s
dive in, but for those new to Linux, Ubuntu and known as a kernel. You’ll find that Linux is used also more than either of those. Within the Linux
open source software freedom, let’s first get in hundreds of operating systems, and one of world, it’s called a distribution, aka distro.
you up to speed with what it’s all about. the most popular is Ubuntu. Just as Windows As you get more into Ubuntu and open
So what is Linux? What is Ubuntu? And has its own kernel, and Apple’s macOS has its source, you’ll find choice is a huge element.
how does the concept of open source software Darwin kernel, so Ubuntu has Linux. Ubuntu is a distro that doesn’t just provide the

10 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Get started

What does Ubuntu look like?

Desktop
search
This search system
is how you’ll find
and access more
programs and
other files and
documents. You
can filter and even
search online.

Launcher
The Launcher lives
downtheleftofthe
desktop. It holds
recently run
programs. You can
add and remove
items and adjust
the icon size.

Desktop
Settings Files Like all PC desktops, Ubuntu has
You’ll find most system Files and folders can still be one, too. You can keep it as clean or
settings can be easily accessed through a file explorer messy as you like with icons, and can
accessed through this system. The Linux filesystem is choose your own background.
handy system. morecomplexthanWindowsbut
stick to the Home folder.

software that installs and runs Linux on your restrictions and start to use computers as you free open source apps. Many of which rival
PC, it provides the Unity desktop software, it want. The way it should be – it’s all quite the abilities of anything you could buy for
bundles in the Firefox browser, the LibreOffice exciting really. Windows or macOS, and many even
office package, the Gimp art package, the Over the page, you’ll find out how to install surpass their abilities. You’ll also find the
Audacity audio editor and so much more. It’s a and get started with Ubuntu. We assume range of software to be enormous, (see
distro, because it packages and handles an you’re already running a Windows system page 34 for more on apps) and it
entire software library in one. here. If you do already have a Windows encompasses such diverse areas as coding,
This is only possible because of the open system, then you have two choices: wipe over mathematics, physics, engineering, space
source philosophy under which the and beyond.
Linux kernel is developed, the Ubuntu
distro is created, and the open source
“It’s a complex idea but Finally, it’s important to remember
that Ubuntu isn’t just limited to one
licence that all the programs used are
released under.
you’re about to break distro. There’s a whole range of options
available for you, and we encourage you
Open source is a key element to free of any restrictions” to experiment, look around and try out a
software freedom; the idea that all of us few different options to help find the one
should be able to freely use computers Windows and be rid of it forever, or dual boot that suits you best. We’ll outline the many
without being locked in to any single vendor or Ubuntu beside Windows, leaving your files available here, but suffice to say that they
reliant on any single operating system intact. The latter is preferable if your system cover tailored builds for desktop systems,
publisher. It’s a complex idea to get your head has room for it, and is probably the best option internet servers, low-power systems,
around initially, especially if you’ve been used for anyone new to Linux. embedded internet-of-things devices, tablets
to the Microsoft and Apple ways of doing Once you are up and running, Ubuntu and more.
things, but you’re about to break free of any gives you access to literally thousands of So what are you waiting for?

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 11

 Get started

Ubuntu: Quick
install guide
Linux isn’t scary or hard. You can be up and running in just
4 minutes, honestly! Would we lie to you? Don’t answer that…

H
onestly, modern Linux is easier, faster and less hassle To circumvent this system it’s necessary to run the DVD in
to install than any recent release of Windows. That’s a compatibility mode. As mentioned in the box (see Disc
the truth. No messing with keys, no worrying about Booting Problems) use the suitable button to enter the UEFI/
activation and no digging out that lost install disc or USB BIOS. In the UEFI, disable QuickBoot/FastBoot and Intel
drive. The beauty of Linux is that because it’s free software Smart Response Technology (SRT). If you have Windows
anyone can download and start using it immediately. You 8/10, also disable Fast Startup.
don’t even have to install anything! Linux technology and its The procedure to disable the Secure Boot
free and easy licence means that it can be run straight off a Boot to a differs from machine to machine, and in some
CD or DVD. It’s not as fast and you can’t save work as such, Live Disc rare cases it’s outright impossible (where the
but it’s an ideal way to quickly try out Linux without worrying 3m 35s manufacturer doesn’t want the original OS
about installing or setting up anything else. As long as you replacing). Look in the Boot UEFI settings for Classic-BIOS
have an optical drive and can persuade your PC to boot from mode, CSM or Legacy to be able to run the DVD.
it – not always an easy task – then you can be trying out
Linux in just a few minutes. Going virtual
Perhaps you want something a little more permanent? Another option is to install Oracle VirtualBox software from
If you’ve tried Ubuntu and decided it’s for you then it’ll easily www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Install and run this.
Quick help you install it permanently on your local hard drive. It can It looks complex, but creating a virtual PC is pretty easy if you
tip even automatically shrink Windows to fit Ubuntu on there. stick to the default settings. The main stumbling block is
We didn’t include If that sounds too complex then why not use a virtual ensuring you add the ISO file to the virtual optical drive under
times to download version? We’ll look at how using VirtualBox you can run the Storage settings. (See box Installing VirtualBox).
anything, as that’s Ubuntu at the same time as Windows. Another big win with
so variable and Linux and Ubuntu is that it doesn’t require anywhere near the
unnecessary.
We also excluded
any POST delays,
space of Windows. The minimum space is around 7GB,
obviously more is always better, but to try out Ubuntu just
“If you’re not a
but we also
excluded the many
10GB is more than enough. big Linux user
times we popped
out to make a
Easy ways to Linux then you probably
nice Cup of Tea.
Otherwise times
If you’re not a big Linux user then you probably won’t want to
destroy your existing Windows or Mac system. And the truth won’t want to
include writing
to any discs and
is that you don’t need to either, Linux is flexible enough that it
can be run in a number of ways: beside, on top or alongside
destroy your
the entire boot-up
process.
most other operating systems and on most types of existing Windows
hardware, and from virtual versions to versions running off
USB drives, DVDs or on hardware like the Raspberry Pi. or Mac system.
Booting a DVD is the easiest and fastest way to try Linux
and Ubuntu. Here, at Linux Format Towers, after navigating
And the truth is
the DVD menu we can have Ubuntu loaded up in less than
four minutes. Getting the disc to boot, however, can be easier
that you don’t
said than done. If your system doesn’t automatically run the need to either,
disc when turned on with it in the drive. Ideally, it’s no more
complex than pressing the correct key to open a Boot Menu Linux is flexible
from which you can select the DVD to run.
There’s an additional issue that can happen with PCs
enough that it can
using the more recent UEFI boot system that replaces the
BIOS – these tend to be on PCs made after 2010 – where the
be run in a
UEFI can block the disc from running for security reasons. number of ways”
12 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu
 Get started

Installed on
a virtual PC
7m 00s Installing to a VirtualBox

1 Get VirtualBox 2 Create a machine 3 Starting virtual Ubuntu

Head to www.virtualbox.org and download Choose Ubuntu and the bits should match A prompt will appear asking for a disc, locate
Virtual Box 6 for your operating system, be the ISO you downloaded, click ‘Next’. Under the Ubuntu ISO file and click ‘Start’. Linux
that Windows or macOS . Install it and be Memory we’d recommend 2048, but if you Ubuntu will start, once loaded you’re free to
aware you’ll need around 20GB of space drive have an 8GB PC 4096 is best. You can leave try out Ubuntu or use the Install icon to
space to store the virtual OS file. You’ll also all the rest as default settings, apart from the properly install it to the virtual machine.
need the Ubuntu ISO file from www.ubuntu. dynamic hard drive size. The default is 8GB, For extended use in the virtual machine’s
com. Once installed, start it, click the ‘New’ we’d suggest at least 32GB just in case. Finish settings under Display, you’ll want to enable
button and call it Ubuntu. and click Start to get going. 3D acceleration and allocate 16MB.

If you find you want to keep using the virtual version of this to work you’ll need to use a write tool, such as
Ubuntu ensure you install the VirtualBox additions, this UNetbootin from http://unetbootin.github.io. This can be a
Quick
provides better screen scaling, seamless mouse integration, helpful option if your device doesn’t have an optical drive that tip
combined clipboard and seamless dragging and dropping you can boot from or you’ve downloaded the relevant disc On the Mac you
from the host machine to the virtual Ubuntu. To do this run image (ISO) file from www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop. have to hold c
when your system
the VirtualBox Ubuntu, once the desktop has loaded select
is turned on to get
the Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image… What this Using USB it to boot from an
does is add another virtual optical disc with the required There are some pretty exotic solutions for running Ubuntu optical drive. As
software. After a few seconds a window should open asking if and other versions of Linux from a USB stick, eg so you can we go into some
you want to run the disc, choose ‘Run’ and allow the software carry your OS around with you and boot it on almost any PC depth when you
first turn on a PC
to install, this can take a while. you happen across, but we’re just looking at running a basic
you can usually
Use the View, Input and Devices menus at the top of the Live Disc so you can at least try it out. (See Ubuntu on a USB get it to boot from
VirtualBox window to adjust and control all of the previously drive for more details.) alternative media
mentioned integration features. They make using the You’ll need at least a 2GB stick, larger ones give you the by pressing F11/F12.
VirtualBox much more comfortable, as well as enable a wider option of using the spare space as storage, ensure you enter
range of resolutions. a suitable value into UNetbootin. Also be aware using USB
There are more options available including writing the ISO storage brings its own set of issues. We had no problem with
file to a suitable USB thumb drive and following a similar boot a Toshiba 16GB stick, but a San Disk 32GB stick would start
process as discussed above, running Linux from this. To get but Ubuntu wouldn’t then load.

Disc booting problems

The first problem that many people encounter is booting
their desktop or laptop from a DVD. Many systems no longer
check the optical drive for boot media, as it slows down the
start process. You have two options, one is to open any
provided Boot Menu – not all devices offer this – the key
used varies. HP systems use F9, Dell and Lenovo use F12,
older AMIBIOS-based systems use F8, Award-based
systems use F11. You need to slowly tap the key just after
switching on the system. Select any CD-ROM/Optical drive
option and you’re good to go.
If no boot menu seems available the other option is to
select the order of boot devices within the BIOS/UEFI
settings. Typically a message should flash up during the
system start explaining which key to press. Just as with the
boot menu pressing one of Del (the most common), F1, F2,
Esc or a ‘special’ maintenance key should provide access. In
the BIOS locate the Boot Device menu and ensure a DVD/
optical drive is first in the list. Save and reboot! This is our boot menu, there are others like it, but this one is ours.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 13

 Get started

UEFI has
replaced the
BIOS and can
block discs from
running for
security reasons.

We don’t really have space here to go into the full ins and on the drive. Before trying to ensure the drive has enough free
outs of backing up any existing Windows partition, resizing space. These days drives can be easily 500GB or larger, as
partitions and installing Ubuntu by hand. The good news is long as there’s 20GB free there shouldn’t be an issue; more
Ubuntu will largely do the last two automatically for you, if you space is required than just for Ubuntu as there needs to be
let it. Be warned though, it’s easy to destroy your Windows space to move Windows files out of the way too. If there isn’t
partition, the Windows bootloader or to leave your PC this free space, run the Windows Disk CleanUp Tool, ideally
unusable if you should choose the wrong options or if choose to re-run it as Administrator, and get it to remove
something else goes wrong along the way. We don’t unused system files too.
recommend installing or upgrading any OS unless you have If you don’t have 20GB free then it’s best that you don’t
backed up any files, created an image of your drives and the try to install Ubuntu. Once you start the Ubuntu install
system isn’t critical to any business, personal use or other process don’t interrupt it. If you break your bootloader or
operation. With that dire warning out of the way, on to the fun! partition tables then they can be a real pain to fix, but if you
As a general rule if you have Windows on the boot drive, do manage to break something don’t panic Windows will still
Ubuntu will happily resize this and fit itself alongside Windows be there.

Installed on
your USB
5m 20s Ubuntu on a USB drive

1 UNetbootin Linux 2 Install Ubuntu 3 Boot and run

To run Ubuntu from a USB stick, you first The tool can download the ISO image, but it’s You can now boot your PC from the USB
need a USB drive at least 2GB in size, 8GB best practice to do this yourself. So select drive. However, you’ll need to ensure your PC
would be ideal. You’ll need the Ubuntu ISO file Diskimage, locate the file in the Download selects the USB drive as the boot device.
from www.ubuntu.com as discussed in the folder. Use the Ubuntu storage box to create Usually when you first turn on your PC a
VirtualBox walkthrough and we’ll use the reusable space—512MB should be fine use message says press F8, F9, F11 or F12 to
download tool UNetbootin from http:// more on larger sticks. Ensure you have the select the boot device. Some PCs have their
unetbootin.github.io. This installs the Live correct USB drive select in the bottom pull- own specific button, consult your manual or
Disc ISO file directly to your USB drive. down menu and click ‘OK’ to create the drive. manufacturer for details. Ubuntu will now run.

14 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

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 Get started

Ubuntu
blasts
off!
Ubuntu is back and
it’s better than ever.
Read on to find out
why Jonni Bidwell
is out of this
world over this new
release…

C
anonical’s latest Ubuntu release, to a USB stick) without interfering with which more often than not is at least as
“Focal Fossa”, hit the mirrors at the your current setup. We’ve got guides to good as commercial offerings, and in
end of April. So by the time you read trying Ubuntu in a virtual machine and, many cases is demonstrably superior.
this thousands of people will have downloaded when you’re ready, even installing it on to Video editing, 3D modelling, high-
it, installed it and (we’ll wager) been downright bare metal. powered number crunching and even
impressed with what it has to offer. If you There are all kinds of reasons to AAA gaming are all just a few clicks away.
haven’t yet tried it, then you’re in for a treat. switch to Linux, and with the new Ubuntu If your desktop habits are more
We’ll show you what’s new and what release comes one more. Be the envy of sedentary, though, don’t worry: Ubuntu’s
you can do with Canonical’s finest. And if your proprietary OS-using friends. Never got you covered, too. Fast web browsing,
you’ve never tried Linux before, Ubuntu see your computer crippled by updates easy email, fuss-free media playing are
20.04 LTS Focal Fossa is a great place to again. Enjoy a desktop that’s not an all yours out of the box. Read on to see
start. You can try it right now (well, in the advertising space. Explore the just how powerful this operating system
time it takes you to download and write it phenomenal selection of free software, really is.

16 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Get started

Focal fossa bossa nova

It’s hard to know what to focus on with this new release,
so here’s a quick summary of Focal Fossa’s highlights.

N
aturally, everything under the Ubuntu hood has been
refreshed. The new 5.4 kernel brings support for new
hardware and fixes for old. What most home users
will be interested in is the desktop, and you’ll find Gnome 3.36
looks and behaves better than ever. It seems like there’s been
a two-year game of bug whack-a-mole, both within Gnome
and Ubuntu’s take on it, to address niggling performance and
memory issues. But with this release, it’s smooth like the
inferior type of peanut butter.
“The darkening” has come finally to Ubuntu. Like so many
desktops and programs it now offers a dark mode, which
some people find easier on the eyes. Light or dark, we think
you’ll love the new bold icons and Yaru theme. Gnome’s
application folders feature, by which you can drag icons in the
Applications menu on top of one another to make a folder, is
less clumsy now. And if you remove all but one item from a
folder, then the singleton is automatically promoted back to
the main menu and the folder removed. Tidy. case you’re concerned about the 32-bit library palaver, Ubuntu’s
If you have a HiDPI display you’ll be pleased to hear don’t be: everything needed by Steam, Wine and Lutris is delightful
that fractional scaling is finally here. And (unlike in 19.10) still in the repos. If you’re running old 32-bit applications wallpapers all
you don’t need to invoke Gsettings from the command you might experience difficulties, so test these before have a ‘focal’
line to use it. Previously, only integer scaling was getting rid of your 18.04 install. There’s an opportunity theme goin’ on.
available, which meant users often had to choose to help the community here if you find one that doesn’t
between tiny text and giant text. Now the Goldilocks work – do your bit and package it up as a Snap. Learn
Zone can be enabled through a simple switch in more from this blog post: https://snapcraft.io/blog/
Settings>Screen Display, but do note the small print how-to-preserve-old-software-with-snaps.
warning about increased power usage and decreased The Ubuntu Software tool now serves Snaps as the
sharpness. At time of writing, there seem to be issues default. Indeed, most applications we searched for were
using this with the proprietary Nvidia driver, so keep an only available in this format, but some packages can be
eye on this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ installed from the traditional Ubuntu repos. Of course,
ubuntu/+source/gnome-control- you can still install packages from the command line
center/+bug/1870736. with apt if you’re not sold on the ‘app store’ mentality.
Speaking of Nvidia, its drivers are included on the We predict Snaps (and Flatpaks) are going to gain
install medium. No need to resort to a PPA or (shudder) serious traction in the coming months and years.
downloading them from Nvidia’s website. Gamers will As you’ll see from the Software application, a number
be pleased to hear that Feral’s GameMode is part of a of tools are now packaged as Snaps. And this number
standard install. This can rejig CPU frequency governers, will increase as developers side-step the old method of
schedulers and other frobs to boost framerates. And in relying on distros to package up their offerings.

Where’s my cover disc?

Usually, at this point we’d be telling people to fire Of course, we’re sorry for those people who sneaky hacks to make them boot that way, but
up our DVD and get started with Ubuntu right don’t have the connectivity to go downloading a once that menu is gone they behave exactly as if
now. But there is no physical DVD this month, couple of gigabytes on a whim. But these are a you had downloaded the ISO in question and
and the ‘free download’ we’re offering features small minority of users, and these are written it to a DVD yourself.
Fedora and Manjaro. The thinking (there was exceptional times. This whole kerfuffle might We tell you this not because we don’t want to
thinking behind this decision, honest!) was that serve to illustrate an important point: the distros make DVDs in the future – it’s the closest thing
since we’re telling people to download we would normally put on our DVD are exactly Jonni gets to a break after all – but rather to
something anyway, they may as well download the same as the ones we’re telling you to empower you to go forth in the spirit of enquiry,
Ubuntu straight from the official site: https:// download. They might hide behind a retro, VGA download distros and seek out your version of
ubuntu.com resolution menu, and sometimes there are desktop perfection.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 17

 Get started

Installing Ubuntu
You’ve got to try it to love it, but you’ve got to install it to really feel its power.

J
ust uttering the phrase “Installing Linux” will send a 2.5GB disk image (ISO) file which you can write to a
shiver down the spines of most humans, but it’s not as DVD using the software of your choice (for example,
terrifying as it used to be. Don’t get overzealous, though: Toast on macOS, CDBurnerXP on Windows, Brasero on
it’s still possible to wipe out your existing OS by pushing the Linux). We know that many PCs and most laptops don’t
wrong button, and you should spend a couple of hours trying have optical drives nowadays, but that’s okay – the
out Ubuntu before committing to installing it. image can be written to a USB stick, which will probably
Running the live environment, or installing to a virtual boot much faster and certainly will be much quieter
machine will give you a handle on the look ‘n’ feel of this than booting from DVD. There are programs like
pinnacle of free software. There are a couple of hoops to Unetbootin that can automatically download distros and
jump through before we get there though. You can set them up in all kinds of fancy ways, but we prefer
to keep things simple so here we’re recommending
the cross-platform Etcher tool. Grab it from https://
Using the ISO image etcher.io, start it up, plug in a USB drive (make sure
there’s nothing precious on it because its contents will
“We know that many PCs and all be destroyed), and away you go.
most laptops don’t have optical Boot from your ISO file
drives nowadays, but that’s You’ll need to figure out how to make your PC boot from
USB or optical media before you can enjoy Ubuntu. You
okay – the image can be written have two options: one is to open any provided Boot
Menu – not all devices offer this – the key used varies.
to a USB stick.” HP systems use F9, Dell and Lenovo use F12, older
AMIBIOS-based systems use F8, Award-based systems
download the Ubuntu install image from whatever use F11. You need to slowly tap the key just after
operating system you’re comfortable with. Fire up your switching on the system. Select any CD-ROM/Optical
browser and head to https://ubuntu.com/download/ drive option and you’re good to go.
desktop and press the Download button. If you’re If no boot menu is available the other option is to
feeling charitable you can also make a donation to select the order of boot devices within the BIOS/UEFI
Canonical and choose how the company invests it, but settings. A message should appear during the system
this is optional. We’d recommend making a cup of tea start saying which key to press. Just as with the boot
while the download completes. You should now have a menu pressing either Del (the most common), F1, F2,

Installing to a VirtualBox

1 Get VirtualBox 2 Create a machine 3 Starting virtual Ubuntu

Head to www.virtualbox.org and download Choose Ubuntu and the bits should match the A prompt will appear asking for a disc – locate
VirtualBox 6 for your operating system, be ISO you downloaded, then click Next. Under the Ubuntu ISO file and click Start. Linux
that Windows or OS X. Install it and be aware Memory we’d recommend 2,048, but if you Ubuntu will start, and once loaded you’re free
you’ll need at least 20GB of space drive space have an 8GB PC 4,096 is best. You can leave to try out Ubuntu or use the Install icon to
to store the virtual OS file. You’ll also need the all the rest as default settings, apart from the properly install it to the virtual machine. For
Ubuntu ISO file from www.ubuntu.com/ dynamic hard drive size. The default is 8GB, extended use, in the virtual machine’s settings
desktop/download. Once installed start it but we’d suggest at least 32GB if you can under Display, you’ll want to enable 3D
and click the New button and call it Ubuntu. spare. Finish and click Start to get going. acceleration and allocate 16MB

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Esc or a ‘special’ maintenance key should give access. In

the BIOS locate the Boot Device menu and ensure the
DVD/optical drive is first in the list. Save and reboot!
You can explore the live environment risk free, but for
maximum pleasure and performance install Ubuntu to
your hard drive or SSD using the handy six-step guide
over the page. If you have one we’d recommend
installing Ubuntu to its own device, rather than resizing
the Windows partition per steps one and two. It should
all work fine, and in fact it’s possible to carry out those
steps from the Ubuntu installer. But we’ve been around
long enough to know things don’t always go as they
should. So back up any important data before
proceeding. If you have a spare device, just select it and
use the Erase disk and install Ubuntu option in step four.
Molto semplice. If you want to play it safe, another
option is to install Ubuntu to a virtual machine using
Modern UEFI interfaces should make it easy to change the boot device. This one
Oracle’s VirtualBox and the guide below. even makes it possible for you to take screenshots, which is frankly witchcraft.

Install Ubuntu with windows

1 Make room 2 Shrink Windows 3 Updates and plugins

To create an empty partition for your Ubuntu This brings up the Shrink dialog that shows After your computer boots from the Ubuntu
installation, you’ll first have to squeeze your you the total size of the hard drive and the installation medium, it’ll display a checklist.
existing Windows partition. Fire up the Disk maximum amount of space that you can Toggle the two available checkboxes on this
Management tool in Windows, and right-click squeeze out of the selected partition. To screen. The first checkbox option will fetch
your main partition that’s typically assigned create a new partition, specify the size of the any available updates from the Internet, and
the drive letter C. Then select the Shrink partition in the space provided in megabytes the other will install the plugin required to play
Volume option from the pop-up menu. and click Shrink to start the process. MP3 content and Wi-Fi firmware.

1 Use free space 2 Define partitions 3 Localise and personalise

In the screen labelled Installation type, toggle In the Create partition box enter the size for And that’s it. The installer will now start the
the ‘Something else’ radio button to manually the Ubuntu partition. Then use the ‘Mount process of installing Ubuntu. While the files
partition the disk. Ubuntu will now show you a point’ pull-down menu to select the / option. are being copied to the hard drive in the
list of partitions on the hard drive. Select the If you like, you can create a separate home background, it’ll ask about your locale. In the
one labelled Free Space and click the plus sign partition (if you want to keep user files and last screen you’ll be asked to enter your
(+) to create a partition out of this space you system files separate) in exactly the same way. desired login and password details, as well as
freed up in Windows. Just select /home from the menu. a name for your computer.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 19

 Get started

Desktop deep dive

Here’s a quick guide to Ubuntu’s top-notch take on the Gnome desktop.

C
oming from Windows or macOS, Ubuntu at first frequently used ones. So the first time you click it this view
glance appears dramatically different, and perhaps will be barren. You’ll find a grid of installed applications
even a little daunting. But don’t worry, soon it will feel (pictured in the annotation below, which hopefully helps you
just like home. Your first port of call might be the Applications get your bearings) by clicking in the bottom right, so have a
menu, which you can access by clicking in the top left of the nosey around to see what interests you.
screen, or by pressing the Super (Windows) key. This shows The standard install includes everything you need to
any running applications, or if there aren’t any will show get started, and tries to avoid bundling things that you
don’t. Perhaps we should have mentioned earlier the
minimal install option if you don’t need an office suite,
games or other computing fripperies. This saves you
around half a gigabyte.
Sooner or later you’ll want to add an application or
several, and the easiest way to do this is through the
Ubuntu Software shortcut in the dock (the one that
If you can’t looks like an orange briefcase). One of our first additions
banish Facebook,
is the Gnome Tweaks tool, which makes it possible for
you can at least
you to customise the desktop’s appearance and
contain it thanks
to this excellent behaviour in lots of ways. Depending on who you believe,
Firefox plugin. this either should not exist at all, or should be included

Getting to Gnome you...

1 3 4
2

1 Activities 3 Calendar and Notifications area 5 Applications menu

Clicking here (or pressing the Super Click here to control music, see any Click here to open/close a view of
key) launches the Activities view. Helpfully, appointments (if you’ve connected an frequently used applications. You can see
it shows previews of running programs. appropriate service) or activate Do not all installed applications from the selector
Disturb mode. at the bottom of this menu.
2 Search Box
Start typing in the Activities view (there’s 4 Status Menu 6 Dock
no need to click in the box) to search Apps, Network settings (including VPN), volume Launch your favourite applications
Docs and more. controls and application indicators can be from here. Right-clicking a running
found here. The button in the bottom left application (denoted by a dot) enables you
launches the all-important Settings tool. to add it to the dock for easier access.

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 Get started

KDE Plasma is traditional in the sense that there’s a menu

in the bottom left, but it’s sleek and modern looking, too.

The Gnome session lacks Ubuntu’s characteristic left sidebar. And the darker
by default on the Gnome desktop. We’ll let you be the
colours bring looming deadlines into stark relief.
judge: just search for tweak in Ubuntu software, click the
green install button, and confirm with your password.
The installer will have prompted you to add any online line. Contrary to what you might read elsewhere, it’s
accounts you have, such as Facebook or Google. These entirely possible to use desktop Linux without
will integrate with your desktop calendar and file memorising a bunch of strange command line
manager as appropriate, so you can browse Google incantations or having a PhD in regular expressions. It’s
Drive or receive Facebook notifications. If you didn’t add hard to overestimate how powerful the terminal is, but
these accounts earlier you can always add them by for desktop use you’d be better off memorising a couple
going to Settings>Online Accounts. You’ll probably find of keyboard shortcuts for Gnome instead:
you need to log out and log back in before calendars and Super (Windows key) – Bring up the activities view
other things sync properly. If you have successfully Super-Left/Right – Tile current application left or
connected accounts and are tired of all these right (so it fully occupies one half of the screen)
notifications you can remove them from here too. Super-Up/Down – Maximise/Restore current
Alternatively, the Do Not Disturb switch in the calendar application
panel will silence these and hopefully keep you focused. Super-PgUp/PgDown – Switch virtual desktops
Super-Shift-PgUp/Dn – Move current application to
Browser wars next/previous virtual desktop.
We’re particularly enamoured with Firefox 76 and its
stylish new interface. If you’re coming from the
proprietary world then Google Chrome may be your Keep things up to date
browser of choice, and if you really want that then it’s
straightforward enough to install (and its open source
“Often it’s the hate-ridden
sibling Chromium is even easier). But we think you
should give Firefox a chance, if only for the privacy-
Windows updates that cause
preserving Facebook Container add-on. And indeed the people to switch to Linux.
multi-account container add-on, because tracking on the
web is out of control nowadays. Ubuntu is much more
Often it’s the hate-ridden Windows updates that
cause people to switch to Linux. Ubuntu is much more
considered in its updates.”
considered in its updates. There’s an unattended
upgrades service that applies urgent fixes in the
background, but you’ll be told (not forced) about general
package updates. These can be applied at a convenient
Favourite flavour
time from the Software application, or the command If you don’t like Ubuntu’s desktop, there are other flavours available. Kubuntu,
powered by the slick KDE Plasma desktop, has a slightly more Windows-like feel.
Visit https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours to see the whole selection. You
don’t need to install a whole new distro just to try a new desktop, though. For
example, if you want to try pure Gnome (without Ubuntu’s tweaks) then fire up the
Terminal app and type the following:
$ sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop
You can then choose the Gnome session from the login screen: just click the cog
icon in the bottom-right and choose Gnome. Unlike the Ubuntu session, this uses
the newer Wayland protocol for talking to the displays. This should work well (at
least with open source drivers) by now, but if you run into difficulties try Gnome on
Xorg instead. Other desktop environments can be installed this way too, via the
kubuntu-desktop , ubuntu-mate-desktop , ubuntu-budgie-desktop and other such
packages. Once you’ve settled on your favourite desktop, you may consider
reinstalling the corresponding flavour in the name of tidiness. Each desktop will
The Xubuntu flavour is great for lower-powered systems, or install its own core applications, so there will be some duplication
for people who prefer their desktops to stay out of the way.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 21

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Under the hood

There are subtle changes and understated improvements
in Ubuntu 20.04 that really deserve mentioning…

W
e get it. A new Ubuntu release, even an LTS, isn’t In this new outing you’ll find support for AMD’s Navi
the cause célèbre it once was. Even management 12 and 14 GPUs as well as their new APUs, and the open
get that now. Daubing the cover in orange and source Nouveau driver has improved colour
superlatives like ‘must-have’ and ‘revolutionary new features’ management. There’s support for Intel’s Comet Lake
(those are good ideas!–Ed) isn’t going to fool anyone, chips and initial support for their 11th-generation Tiger
especially savvy Linux users. Lake architecture. The Kernel Lockdown security module
We’ve always said that this lack of ground-breaking also debuts in this release, which limits how userspace
change is a good thing. It shows Ubuntu has reached code (even if it’s running as root) from interfering with
such a level of maturity that refinement, and not radical kernel operations. First proposed by security guru
rewriting of the rules, is the optimal path. We also Matthew Garrett some years ago, this is aimed at
understand that there are plenty of other distros admins who want to limit the damage a compromised
root account can cause.
There are a couple of noteworthy filesystem
Ubuntu fancies a slice of pi changes: support for Microsoft’s newly (sort of) open

“Having Canonical’s sourced exFAT, as well as the speedy VirtIO-FS for

sharing directories with virtual machines. Ubuntu also
certification will encourage backport lots of features from newer kernels, and one
notable addition is support for Wireguard VPNs. In an
enterprises to do great things age of surveillance and dubious sponsored ‘best VPN’
listicles, this will surely be a boon for privacy. It’s early
with the Raspberry Pi days yet, but we forsee Wireguard being key to
(models 2, 3 and 4). demystifying the VPN sphere. It’s small, fast and much
easier to get your head around than OpenVPN, being
much more akin to setting up an SSH server.
suitable for beginners (and let’s stress here that Ubuntu
is popular with professionals too), and maybe some of Storage options
those don’t get the attention that Ubuntu does. All that Moving into lower userspace, there’s systemd 245, which
aside, Ubuntu remains one of the most popular distros features the new home directory regime
among our readers, and indeed Linux users in general. systemd-homed . Don’t worry though, Ubuntu doesn’t use

Two software
tools, both alike
in dignity in fair
Ubuntu where we
lay our scene.

22 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Get started

this by default, and to be honest we weren’t able to activate it generate a key on the local system with ssh-keygen then
so it looks like this feature hasn’t been built into the package. copy it to the remote one with ssh-copy-id . Well now,
Again, early days. There’s also an experimental option to if you attach your hardware token and run
install using the next-generation ZFS filesystem, whose roots $ ssh-keygen -t ecdsa-sk
go back to Oracle’s Solaris. Licencing conflicts have kept this then you’ll be prompted to tap the
out of the Linux kernel, and it’s not a thing your average user authenticator as well as provide an optional
will want. But if you have insane storage, lots of memory and password. You can then copy this key to
deduplication requirements, ZFS is a mere checkbox in the remote systems as before. In order to log
installer away. Ubuntu’s zsys middleware will automatically in with the new key, for now, you’ll need to
Get your
snapshot filesystems before software updates, so that these specify it with the following: hardware
can be undone if things go south. $ ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk myserver.com secured, Elliptic
There’s a new officially supported target to get Curve DSA SSH
excited about, the Raspberry Pi (models 2, 3 and 4). Not That’s all folks key game on with
only is this great for home users, particularly those who And with that, we must go (to the printers, like now – Ed). OpenSSH 8.2.
want to take advantage of the Pi 3 and 4’s Aarch64/ We haven’t covered the dark art of running Ubuntu on
ARMv8 OS hardware, but having Canonical’s Windows via WSL yet, but with WSL 2 going mainstream
certification will encourage enterprises to do great soon, that certainly will be an interesting endeavour,
things with the Pi. Read more about this on Rhys Davies though perhaps one that interests developers more
post on the official Ubuntu blog at https://ubuntu. than home users. If you’re running Ubuntu 18.04 on
com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-is-certified-for-the- your server, it’s probably wise to hold off upgrading until
raspberry-pi. the 20.04.1 point release.
The certification only applies to Ubuntu Server, and There’s much more to Ubuntu and we’d love to hear your
that’s the only Raspberry Pi download that’s offered opinions on it and its other flavours. There are some great
through Canonical’s website, but it’s straightforward to Ubuntu derivatives out – be sure to check out our Regolith
add a desktop, for example. via the xubuntu-desktop and Pop!_OS reviews, and there will be a slew of others in the
package. If you have a Pi 4 and want to take advantage coming weeks and months. Happy fossicking among the
of its extra oomph, why not install KDE Plasma? At the Focal Fossa famalam!
moment the official Gnome desktop isn’t supported on
the Pi, but don’t forget an Ubuntu MATE SD card image
is available (from https://ubuntu-mate.org) if you want
a ready-to-roll desktop. The MATE desktop is ideal for
Out with the old…
lower-powered devices, or just people who liked Gnome We made a big deal last issue of the fact that 32-bit PC users won’t be able to enjoy
2. MATE Images are also available for UMPCs such as this new release. There’s no upgrade path from 32-bit 18.04, as there was from
the GPD Pocket and MicroPC. 16.04 – the last LTS to offer a 32-bit install medium. And that’s a bit of a shame
Flatpaks can’t be installed from the Ubuntu Software because it’s great. But those users can continue to use 18.04 for another three
app, but are available from the command line. If you years, so no need to panic yet. Also gone from the default install is Python 2, and the
want to install them GUI style you can install the vanilla vast majority of packages in the repositories have been upgraded to use Python 3.
Gnome Software application, add the Flatpak plugin and The older version reached end-of-life at the start of this year, but the package is still
available for the few projects that still rely on it.
then add the Flathub repo with:
Finally, a small thing, but one that makes us incredibly happy. That horrible
$ sudo apt install gnome-software gnome-software-plugin-
Amazon link in the launcher has gone. It has irked us since it debuted in 2012. The
flatpak only thing it was useful for was teaching users how to remove icons from the dock.
$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub. Veterans will recall that previous Ubuntu releases included Amazon links when
org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo searching in the Unity HUD, but those days are long gone. Speaking of Unity, if you
Note the message about the search path: a restart is really miss that desktop, you can install it from the ubuntu-unity-desktop package.
required before Flatpak apps show up in the Alternatively, you can go all out and try the Unity remix. Find out more about this at
Applications Menu. Slightly confusingly, you’ll now find https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-unity-remix-20-04.
two app stores, Ubuntu Software and Software, in the
applications menu. The latter will enable you to install
from the whole gamut of package sources: Flatpaks,
Snaps or good old-fashioned DEBs. So you could even
uninstall the snap-store package if you want. The
screenshot (left) shows the differences between the
Snap and Flatpak versions of Qutebrowser.
Our security feature in LXF262 showed you a few
things you can do with hardware tokens such as the
Nitrokey and Yubikey. If you have a FIDO (Fast IDentity
Online) or U2F (Universal second Factor) device, then
not only can you use it, as we showed in that feature, to
log in locally (using the pam_u2f module), you can also
use it remotely. New key types introduced in OpenSSH
8.2 can work with these devices, enhancing security
when logging in to your Ubuntu device via SSH. You Remember back in LXF195 when we told you Python 2 is going away? It’s
might already be familiar with the idea of using an SSH still going away.
key instead of (or as well as) a password. Basically,

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 23

 Get started

Hirsute Hippo
It may not be packed full of eye-catching new features, but Ubuntu
21.04 features plenty of improvements.

W
ayland may be dominating the headlines, using the Dark Theme by default for UI elements on the
but it’s by no means the only new feature menu bar, including status menus and Calendar tool.
that’s arrived in Ubuntu 21.04. Several other In addition, look out for some small, but pleasing
features are linked to Wayland, of course – the PipeWire updates to the Nautilus File Manager, including icon
project for one, with its aim to “greatly improve handling of redesigns incorporating rounded corners.
audio and video under Linux”. It’s basically a replacement
for pulseaudio and JACK, designed to work with Desktop improvements
containerised Flatpak applications but also tying in neatly One major change that should make life a lot simpler is
with Wayland’s tighter security requirements. the incorporation of a new desktop extension that finally
In practical terms, its primary function is to restore handles drag-and-drop interactions between desktop
the ability to both screen-share and record your desktop and applications (such as via the file manager) properly.
with compatible applications such as OBS Studio and Take a trip to Settings>Power where you should find –
Discord. It’ll also improve audio support in sandboxed assuming your configuration has proper kernel support
applications such as those installed through Flatpak. – that you can now configure power profiles from the
One interesting choice made in Ubuntu 21.04 is the friendly GUI. Simply switch between ‘balanced power’
one to stick with GNOME 3.38 (or, more precisely, and ‘power saver’ as required. This feature is clearly
aimed at laptop users, with the only downside being
that your settings won’t survive a reboot.
Productivity Boost The default programs Thunderbird, Firefox and
LibreOffice have also been updated to the latest
“A new desktop extension versions at time of release – LibreOffice is now

finally handles drag-and-drop officially up to 7.1.2.

interactions between desktop Security improvements

There are several welcome security updates in Ubuntu
and applications” 21.04 worthy of highlighting. First, users’ Home folders
have finally been made private. This means that users
can no longer easily browse the contents of other users’
3.38.5). This means that the desktop remains a familiar home folders unless their permissions have been
one, despite the recent release of GNOME 40. As a tweaked accordingly.
One minor
result, no radical desktop changes – such as the If you’re planning on installing Ubuntu 21.04 from
tweak sees all
controversial switch to dynamic horizontal workspaces scratch on an encrypted partition, you’ll be glad to know
menu bar items
– including – have been implemented this time around, although that a fail-safe now exists in the form of an optional
the Calendar – selected GNOME applications, including System recovery key file, which you can use to recover your
switch to the Monitor, have been updated to their GNOME 40 system if anything untoward happens. Look out for the
Dark Theme by versions behind the scenes. There are also some subtle option appearing during the install process.
default. changes to the desktop’s appearance, such as a shift to The built-in firewall now has nftables as its default
back-end. You can still use the more user-friendly ufw
frontend to manage the firewall from the command line
and should notice no difference in functionality. The
main advantages of using nftables over iptables are
that it’s easier to use when addressed directly, has no
pre-defined tables or chains making it fully configurable,
and should be easier to update with new protocols.
Finally, UEFI Secure Boot has been improved to
support SBAT-capable shim, grub2 and fwupd – a
necessary consequence of the recent BootHole security
vulnerabilities disclosed. The desktop also gains support
for smartcard authentication, which can be used in
place of passwords for logging on to your system.
The kernel has also been upgraded to 5.11 (Ubuntu
20.10 ships with kernel 5.8), and in addition to further
security fixes you’ll also benefit from the latest
hardware support and other performance
improvements. Notable examples include reduced

24 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Get started

memory swapping thanks to better anonymous

memory management, fsync() performance
improvements for both ext4 and btrfs filesystems, and
support for the latest graphics technologies such as
Intel Rocketlake and AMD Vangogh.

Developer and server changes

In its blog announcing Ubuntu 21.04, Canonical focused
largely on enterprise users and developers, stressing
new Microsoft-friendly integrations such as native
Microsoft Active Directory integration and support for
Microsoft’s SQL Server, which have also been
backported to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS.
Elsewhere you’ll find key toolchains have been
updated too, including Python (now 3.9), Perl, Ruby
and PHP. OpenJDK 16 sits alongside OpenJDK 11 for
Java support.
Canonical also appears keen to push LTS server Although GNOME itself hasn’t been updated to version 40, many underlying
users into upgrading to this new release with lots of GNOME tools have.
major component updates. Rails 6 is a particular
highlight, with support for rich text material and a
controller-like mailbox along with parallel and action
cable testing. minor improvements to easily justify moving on up from
There’s also Openvpn 2.51, with the promise of Ubuntu 20.10 sooner rather than later. Being able to
faster connection setup and improved TLS 1.3, while drag and drop files between desktop and applications is
Needrestart for Servers is now preinstalled to potentially worth the update on its own.
provide additional help during the update process. It It’s a harder sell if you’re currently running Ubuntu
identifies which daemons need to be restarted after 20.04 LTS, however. Given the new kernel (5.11) will be
library updates and upgrades. shipping in the next point release (20.04.3), there’s no
There are more than dozen other package updates, immediate rush to upgrade. Unless you have an urgent
including QEMU (5.2), Libvirt (7.0), DPDK (20.11.1), need to switch to Wayland, we’d recommend waiting for
Containerd (1.4.4) and Docker.io (20.10.2). Check the 22.04 next year – the windowing system will almost
release notes at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ certainly be the default by then, and any major issues
hirsute-hippo-release-notes/19221 for full details. such as the Nvidia block should be resolved.
It’s a trickier call for those running the LTS version of
Is it time to upgrade? Ubuntu Server, but given that you can update manually
It’s true to say Ubuntu 21.04 is likely to be remembered to many of the new packages, you may still prefer to
as the update that finally made Wayland stick as the hold fire. Either way, if you can’t wait until next year to
new default desktop server. But while there isn’t upgrade, check out the box (below) to find out how to
anything major to get excited about, there are enough do so now.

Where’s my cover disc?

If you’re running Ubuntu 20.10 on your PC, then the next LTS release in April 2022. If you’ve $ sudo nano /etc/update-manager/
keep an eye out for the prompt to update to decided you’re ready to switch from the long- release-upgrades
Ubuntu 21.04. If you miss it, just open Software term support channel to the six-monthly release Change the Prompt=lts line to
Updater and it should be offered to you. channel, then open Software & Updates, switch Prompt=normal , then save the file and exit.
At time of writing, the upgrade option was to the Updates tab and change the ‘Notify me of Finally, issue this command:
being held back because of a potential issue that a new Ubuntu version’ drop-down to ‘For any $ sudo do-release-upgrade
prevents PCs running older EFIs from booting. new version’. By now a month has passed since
This problem should be resolved by Ubuntu 21.04 made its first appearance, and any
the time you read this, but if not, initial bugs should have been ironed out,
open Terminal and then issue the following although if you’re feeling ultra-cautious, we
command: recommend waiting another month or two
$ dmesg|grep “EFI v” before taking the plunge.
So long as the version number is greater than After you switch release channels, open
1.10 you shouldn’t be affected by the bug. If Software Updater and you should be told that
you’re impatient to upgrade, force the upgrade Ubuntu 21.04 is now available – click Upgrade…
with the following command: to install it.
$ sudo do-release-upgrade -d Users who are running Ubuntu Server on their
If you’re running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on the system will need to edit the release-upgrades Switch release channels if you’re ready to
desktop, then you’re less than a year away from file: abandon LTS support for Ubuntu 21.04.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 25

 Get started

Introducing the
Ubuntu desktop
Ubuntu’s desktop might seem a little alien to new users,
but it’s very easy to get the hang of.

L
ike Windows, the desktop of Ubuntu can simply type in the name of what you are and install new applications for Ubuntu. We
is where you’ll spend most of your looking for, and Dash displays the results. One take a more in-depth look at the Software
time. It’s where you can open your of the best things about Dash is that it doesn’t Center later in this bookazine.
programs and interact with them, and you just search your PC; it can also offer up Underneath that is an icon for Amazon,
can also customise your desktop with suggestions from the internet as well. which takes you to the popular online store. Its
wallpaper backgrounds. However, while the If your searches are bringing back too many inclusion is a little contentious among Linux
Ubuntu desktop and the Windows desktop results, you can choose what sort of files or users, so if you don’t like it being there, right-
share some things in common, there are programs you’re after by clicking on one of the click on the icon on the Launcher menu bar
also many differences between them. Once icons along the bottom of the Dash screen, and select Unlock From Launcher.
you get used to it, though, you’ll find that which bring up so-called Lenses, which filter Beneath that is the Settings shortcut, which
the Ubuntu desktop isn’t just easy to use, your results. For example, you could search opens up Ubuntu’s settings. From this window
but it has loads of great features that will your applications, documents, videos, music or you can alter the way Ubuntu behaves, and
make you quickly forget about Microsoft’s photos individually. with some careful tweaking, you’ll be able to
way of doing things. get the operating system working exactly how
When you first load up the Ubuntu desktop, File management you want it to.
you’ll see the Launcher menu, which runs Below the Dash icon on the Launcher is the You’ll also occasionally see an icon with a
down the left-hand side of the screen. This Files icon. This opens up Ubuntu’s file manager, big A and a circle of arrows. This lets you know
is where you can quickly access all of your which is a lot like Windows Explorer. Here you when there are updates for Ubuntu. Although
favourite apps. Pre-installed apps such as the can easily find, open and modify your files and Ubuntu (and Linux as a whole) is a lot more
Firefox web browser and Libre Office appear folders directly from the Ubuntu desktop. As secure than Windows, it’s worth keeping it
here, and you can add other programs by with Windows, Ubuntu helps you keep things updated to make sure any security flaws or
searching for them and dragging their icons on organised by creating folders such as performance issues are fixed.
to the Launcher bar. Documents and Music to store your files. Finally, at the bottom is an icon of a trash
To search for programs, files and more on On the Launcher menu, you’ll also see an can. This works in exactly the same way as the
your PC, you need to use Dash, which can be orange shopping bag icon with a letter A on it. Recycle Bin in Windows, so if you delete a file
opened by clicking on the Ubuntu icon at the Clicking this opens up the Ubuntu Software that you later want to restore, check here
top of the Launcher. Once Dash is open, you Center, which enables you to find, download before you tear your hair out.

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 Get started

Ubuntu settings
Clicking Settings on the Ubuntu desktop enables you to customise your PC.

Brightness & Lock

Appearance If you want to save energy and
Displays
Ubuntu is an attractive have your monitor power down
This enables you to change the
operating system, but if you when you’re not using your PC,
resolution of Ubuntu to better suit
want to tweak its look and click here to set when to turn off
your screen. If you have more than
give it a personalised feel your screen, as well as making it
one monitor, you can also select the
with your own desktop necessary to enter a password to
order they display Ubuntu from this
background, click here to unlock your PC.
screen as well.
change its appearance.

Backups Power User Accounts

This setting enables you to set up a If you’ve installed Ubuntu on your If you share your Ubuntu machine with
schedule for Ubuntu to back up your laptop, then the Power settings are other people, you can create extra user
files and settings. This is great if essential, because they can help you accounts for everyone, which lets them
something goes wrong and you need preserve the battery life of your configure Ubuntu the way they want,
to restore your machine to a previous device when it’s not plugged in. without messing with your own settings.
working version. It also keeps their files and folders
separate from your own.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 27

 Get started

The Desktop
We reveal how to give your Ubuntu desktop a makeover, plus tweak its
settings to better suit the way you work and make it your own.

U
buntu’s Unity desktop is a radical departure from to Settings > Appearance and you’ll see controls for switching
Quick many Linux desktops in that it doesn’t attempt to wallpaper, with 14 images supplied (you can add your own
tip emulate the bog-standard Windows user interface pictures by clicking the + button – remember to make sure
with a taskbar running along the bottom of the screen the image is at least the size of your desktop resolution). If
If you don’t like
Launcher’s default complete with Start menu. Nevertheless, there are still plenty you’d rather set a plain or graduated colour background, click
place, you can move of common elements that make it reasonably intuitive to the ‘Wallpapers’ drop-down menu and choose ‘Colours &
it using the Unity grasp. Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the basic layout, Gradients’ – choose the type of effect first,
Tweak Tool. Launch
you’ll no doubt be itching to give it your personal touch. You’ll also see a Theme drop-down menu for making
the tool and select
Appearance, then As you’d expect, Ubuntu can accommodate just about any changes to the design and colour of windows and menu bars.
choose ‘Bottom’ type of tweak you’d like to throw at it. Some of these can be Three themes are provided: just select one and the desktop
under Position to applied from within Ubuntu’s own Settings panel, but if you will instantly update to that theme. The choice is rather
have the Launcher find its limited set of tools restrictive, we’ll show you how to restrictive, but the good news is that you can download more
run along the
use a more powerful tool to take things to the next level. themes online. You can’t apply these using Appearances, but
bottom of the
screen instead. The most obvious form of customisation is to change the the powerful Unity Tweak Tool allows you to do this as well as
background wallpaper and change other desktop elements apply other customisations not supported by Ubuntu’s
like windows and menu bars in terms of colour and font. Go Settings panel. See the box for more details, and keep an eye
out for more references throughout this tutorial.
You’ll find many themes online, but a good place to start is
www.ubuntuthemes.org. It applies a registration and
checkout process for obtaining and downloading themes, but
most are completely free; simply browse for those you like
and add them to the cart. Once through checkout, a link to a
compressed archive containing the theme’s files is provided,
which you can click to download to your Downloads folder.
The contents of the archive need to be extracted to the
/usr/share/themes folder – this requires elevated access,
so open Terminal and type the following:
$ cd Downloads
Then, if the file extension is .tar.gz, type:
$ sudo tar xf filename.tar.gz -C /usr/share/themes
If you have downloaded a zip file instead, use the following
command instead:
$ sudo unzip filename.zip -d /usr/share/themes
Spread your cluttered application windows across four (or more) virtual In both cases, substitute ‘filename’ with the actual name
desktops to make them easier to manage. of the file. Once extracted, open Unity Tweak Tool and select

The Unity Tweak Tool

If you want to take your desktop customisation to the There’s a whole section dedicated to Unity’s
next level, open the Software Centre and search for window manager – choose ‘Window snapping’ to
‘unity tweak tool’. This powerful free app gives you determine how windows behave when snapped to the
much greater control over the look, feel and sizes or corners of the screen, and Hotcorners to
behaviour of the Unity desktop. create hotspots for switching workspaces, toggling
Once launched you’ll see it closely resembles the desktop view and spreading windows. Use the
Settings tool, with a series of icons split into various Additional tab to control behaviour when double-
sections. Select Launcher and you’ll see it mirrors all clicking title bars.
the options found under Settings > Appearance, plus The tool also gives you more granular control over
adds more of its own (see the Top Tip above). Switch themes, allowing you to mix and match icon sets,
to the Search tab to tweak both the Dash’s look and cursor designs and fonts. One final highlight is
behaviour, or customise the main menu bar from the ‘Desktop Icons’, which allows you to place your choice
Panel tab, including making it semi-transparent and of Home Folder, Network, Rubbish Bin and connected The Unity Tweak Tool gives you
choosing which elements appear in the top right- device icons (such as removable drives) on the far greater control over how your
hand corner of the screen. desktop for quick access. desktop is customised.

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 Get started

Theme under Appearance, where you should find your new

theme is available to switch to.

Customise the Launcher

Install a new app from the Software Centre, and its icon will
automatically be pinned to the Launcher. Other icons will
appear temporarily while an application is running, then
disappear when the app is closed – you can make these
permanent fixtures by right-clicking the app icon and
choosing ‘Lock to Launcher’. Unwanted icons can be removed
by right-clicking and choosing ‘Unlock from Launcher’.
You can rearrange icons simply by clicking and dragging
them up and down the Launcher to their desired location –
you’ll see the other icons helpfully shift to make room. Let go,
and the icon moves to its new home.
If you find the Launcher distracting, open Settings via its
Give your
Launcher icon and choose Appearance. Start by changing the in the Launcher – Ubuntu will then magically switch to the
desktop a more
size of the icons displayed on the Launcher using the correct desktop. You can also move between desktops by
radical makeover
‘Launcher icon size’ slider – to fit more on, decrease the size. holding the [Ctrl] + [Alt] keys and pressing the cursor keys to
by applying a
To go further, switch to the Behaviour tab and flick the move around – a mini thumbnail of all four desktops will new theme to it
‘Auto-hide the Launcher’ switch to On. The Launcher will appear on-screen to guide you to the desktop. alongside other
vanish, only appearing when you drag the mouse over to the Four virtual desktops should be enough for most people, Unity Tweak Tool
left-hand edge of the desktop – use the ‘Reveal sensitivity’ but you can increase this number if you’re the type of person enhancements.
slider to tweak how quickly the Launcher will pop up, or who has multiple apps open at once. When you invoke the
change its trigger area to the top-left corner of the screen if workspace switcher you’ll see the desktops are arranged in a
you prefer by selecting the appropriate radio button. Tick the square table, equating to two rows and two columns. To
‘Add show desktop icon to the launcher’ box if you’d like to be increase the number of available virtual desktops, use the
able to clear the clutter with a single click (it works like Unity Tweak Tool – click ‘Workspace Settings’ under ‘Window
Windows: all app windows are minimised on the first click, Manager’ to increase the number of available desktops by
then click again to bring them back). adding extra rows or columns to the workspace manager.

Virtual desktops And there’s more…

If you frequently have three or more app windows open, your One of Ubuntu’s quirks is that the window controls – such as
desktop can soon start to feel a little cluttered. If you’re minimising, maximising or closing the window – aren’t
looking to keep things relatively clean, or introduce a displayed on the window’s title bar itself, but appear in the
secondary layer of organisation, you need to look at Ubuntu’s main menu bar at the top of the screen when you roll the
workspaces feature. Workspaces are virtual desktops, and mouse over it, along with an application’s menus. If you’d
you can drag and drop application windows between them to rather the controls were placed within the in-app menu bar
free up space on individual desktops or to group related instead, go to Settings > Appearance > Behaviours tab and
applications together (for example, your email, chat and select ‘in the window’s title bar’. Finally, select ‘Always
Solitaire apps for those work break moments). displayed’ to force a program’s menus to be permanently on
To enable workspaces, go to Settings > Appearance > display instead of only appearing when you roll the mouse
Behaviour tab and tick ‘Enable workspaces’ and a new button over the menu bar.
will appear in the Launcher. Click this (or press the [Win] + One last tweak: if you’ve got two or more displays set up,
[S] keys) and the screen divides into four. Drag open windows head over to Settings > Screen Display to customise how
from one virtual space to another to move them, then click they work – you can choose to mirror displays or (more likely)
the desktop you wish to jump to. The Launcher remains in extend the screen display between both monitors. Click and
place across all windows, so simply click the Workspaces icon drag the displays into the desired placement based on their
again to access this screen to switch back. physical location (so the left-hand display sits on the left, for
The beauty of workspaces is that the Launcher remains example). Most controls are logical, but the Sticky Edges
consistent across all your desktops, so you can easily switch feature (on by default) refers to whether or not to maximise
between apps on different desktops by clicking the app icon windows by dragging them to the edge of the screen – if you
don’t like this behaviour, flick the switch to off.

Scale your display

If you’re fortunate enough to own a Now go back to All Settings and select
high-DPI display such as a 4K monitor, Universal Access. Flick the ‘Large Text’
you’ll need to tweak settings to make switch to On. Switch to Appearance and
the display comfortable to read. Start scale up your Launcher icons using the
by going to Settings > Screen Display ‘Launcher icon size’ slider. Finally, if your
and experimenting with the ‘Scale for cursor is too small, open Unity Tweak
menu and title bars’ slider to make the Tool and tick ‘Use large cursors’ in the
menus and title bars more readable. Cursors section of the tool.
Use the Settings to adjust how Unity works.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 29

 Linux apps

30 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Linux apps

Linux
apps
Installing software in Ubuntu�����������������������32
Replacing Windows apps������������������������������34
Enjoy films, music and photos ��������������������36
How to edit photos ���������������������������������������38
Start editing videos ������������������������������������� 40
Editing audio and music �������������������������������42
Browse the web in safety ��������������������������� 44
Enjoy the latest games���������������������������������46
Get on social networks ��������������������������������48
Setting up email���������������������������������������������50

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 31

 Linux apps

Programs:
How to install
new software
Getting fresh programs onto your Linux system is, despite what you may
have heard, utterly straightforward, foolproof and safe.

Y
our Linux system comes pre-installed with a whole modern phone. The whole process is seamless. Apple has
host of useful applications and software, but there brought the system to Mac OS X, and Windows converts
will come a time – there always does – that you want may know that Microsoft has been trying a similar scheme
something new. There are various complex ways of getting since Windows 8: the Microsoft App Store. Cynically, you
hold of new things, and perhaps they’ll be routes you explore might look at that as a way for Microsoft to control its
later on in your Linux life. For now, there’s a much easier way software ecosystem, and you’d probably be right to be
to find new programs for your computer: a package manager. cynical, but it’s also a way to get hold of (some) programs
Package managers deal with everything for you. They without the hassle – and potential danger – of downloading
Quick retrieve the very latest versions of your desired software random things from the internet. It makes sense. It hasn’t
tip from the internet. They sort out any dependencies – items really worked, but the theory is sound.
your computer might be missing – that are required for Ubuntu’s desktop package manager is called Software
You can also
you to be able to run that software. They install everything Centre. It accesses a number of sources – known as
install software
from Ubuntu’s automatically. And, once your software is firmly ensconced in repositories – to grab the right version of your chosen
dashboard. Click your PC, they deal with the process of upgrading or removing program for your computer. Or at least it does for now –
the search button it later on. You never have to get your hands dirty. And, all Ubuntu will soon be replacing it with an alternative, GNOME
at the top of the left being well, everything will work perfectly first time. Software, in the 16.4 release of Ubuntu. But for now, let’s look
hand bar, the apps
You might have come across something similar on your at how you might use Software Centre to download, install
icon at the bottom,
and search for what smartphone. Apple’s App Store and the Android Play Store and remove software – GNOME Software’s interface and
you want. are each examples of package managers – it’s unlikely you’ve philosophy barely differ, so this will stand you in good stead.
ever had to manually download and install any apps on a
Central reservation
As you can see from the annotation above right, there’s not
really an awful lot to Ubuntu Software Centre’s core interface.
A big categorised list of software, buttons so you can see
what’s available, installed, what you’ve done and how
downloads and installations are getting on. The key element
for us is the search box at the top right of the window. It
doesn’t only search by software names – handy, considering
the baffling monikers of most Linux packages – but by
descriptions, too. So, for example, if we wanted to find
a game, we might search, yes, ‘game’. And everything with
‘game’ in its title, short description, and long description will
pop up. Obviously that’s a very broad example, but imagine
you’re looking for a new email client: it makes a lot more
sense to type ‘email’ and find what you’re looking for than it
does to type ‘MBoxImporter’.
Teeth-grindingly annoying nomenclature aside, then. Let’s
install something. And why don’t we get a bit meta? Before
Software Centre, Ubuntu featured a program called Synaptic
Installing software requires that you have admin rights to your system – it’s Package Manager, which we’d wager will still be available
a good way of stopping other users from installing software you don’t want! after the move to GNOME Software. It does the same things

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Inside the Ubuntu Software Centre

Everything
To return to the main menu of Software
Centre, click this button. You can also use
its menu to select where the software
comes from – official Ubuntu releases or
from Canonical’s partners.

Categories
Once you’ve chosen a category in All Software,
that category’s subcategories are displayed,
meaning you can drill down further to the
software you really want.

See it all
Wondering just what there is to choose from in
your current category? Click here to see the
whole confusing list.

Past tense Top picks Search bar

What has Software Centre actually installed? The best (or at least the highest rated) apps in each Searching is vital if you’re not sure of a package
Not just the big packages, but the little ones? category are listed here along with their average name, or not sure what category your chosen
The history page will let you know. ratings and number of reviews (in brackets). package is in. Just type in here and hit [Return].

(searching for packages, fixing dependencies, upgrading and button at the top of the window to find a list of software
the like) with a lot more information on hand. Perhaps it’s not divided by category. We know that Synaptic Package Manager Quick
the best for Linux newcomers, but it’s handy to have around is in Themes and Tweaks, so click the arrow to the left of that tip
when you take the next step. category to expand it and find Synaptic in the list. Click it once Most graphical
Typing ‘package manager’ into the search box doesn’t do and you see a pair of buttons appear – More Info, which is package managers
us an awful lot of good. Synaptic is in the list, sure, but it’s not especially useful if you’re weeding your system and can’t are just a front-end
for terminal apps
easy to find. So hit ‘All Software’ and let’s see if we can find it remember what a particular bit of software actually does, and
like apt-get, which
in a slightly more organic way. It’s actually nestled in the Remove. Click the latter. you can use directly.
typically opaque category ‘Themes and Tweaks’, so click that If applicable, Software Centre will now warn you of things We have more on
in the left hand column of the main page and you should see which also must be uninstalled at the same time. In this case this starting on p60.
it listed in the top rated section of the window that follows. If it’s a package called update-manager, which we can reinstall
not, click the All button at the top and you should see a much later using the same technique we used to install Synaptic
more manageable list. Package Manager. Click Remove All, enter your password,
and the removal will happen – check the History tab for
Actually Installing confirmation. Now go ahead and experiment with Software
Click on Synaptic Package Manager and you’ll see a host of Centre. Install some games, remove some of the default
information about it, a link to its web site, a screenshot (isn’t it apps, go crazy!
pretty?) and, on the right, an Install button. Before you go
ahead and click it, scroll down a little – Synaptic comes with
a host of add-ons that you might be interested in, and these
can be installed simply by marking their individual check
boxes. Scroll a bit further and you’ll find reviews of the
package – very useful if you’re installing an unknown bit of
software, as fellow users are rarely shy about sharing negative
experiences – and Software Centre doesn’t exactly have a
stringent cruft filter – so these can be a big red flag in a lot of
cases. When you’re ready, hit Install. Type your password, hit
Authenticate, and Software Centre will do the rest.
Head to the History panel to see what changes have
actually been made. You should see that a package called
synaptic has been installed, but look at items installed at
a similar time; the list will include a host of Synaptic’s
dependencies that have also made their way onto your
system without you having to lift a finger. Beyond the finger
you used to click the install button, that is.

Once removed Otherwise-redundant dependencies will be automatically removed when you

Let’s reverse the process, while we’re at it. Click the Installed uninstall packages – and sometimes you’ll have to remove additional things too.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 33

 Linux apps

Twelve Linux replacements for

Libre Office (MS Office) GIMP (Photoshop/Paint)

Don’t worry about missing Microsoft Office when you jump to Linux, If you’re a keen photo and image editor, then GIMP should definitely
because Libre Office does everything that Microsoft’s office suite can, be on your list of apps to download. It’s simple enough to replace
but it’s less bloated, doesn’t have the annoying Ribbon interface and, Microsoft Paint, but also has enough depth to give Photoshop a run
best of all, it’s completely free. for its money.

Audacity (Audio editor) Firefox (Internet Explorer)

If audio editing and music creation are more your thing, Audacity is an You won’t find Internet Explorer on Linux (which some people would
excellent replacement for professional tools such as Cubase and say is a good thing), but handling the web browsing duties by default
Sibelius. Even if you’re not particularly musically talented, Audacity is on many versions of Linux is Firefox, which is faster, more secure and
handy for editing voice memos and other sound files. allows you to install add-ons to improve its functionality.

Thunderbird (Outlook) VLC (Media Player)

Do you use Outlook to manage your emails in Windows? Then you’ll If you use Windows Media Player or a third-party application such as
want to install Thunderbird, which is an incredibly versatile desktop Cyberlink PowerDVD, you can use VLC to solve all your media-playing
email client. Like Firefox (they are both created by the same company), woes. It’s much more flexible than WMP and can play a huge variety of
you can install add-ons to tailor it exactly to your needs. media files, and unlike PowerDVD, it’s completely free.

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common Windows programs

Gtkpod (Apple iTunes) Amarok (Media Player)

Got an iPhone or iPod? You might be worried that because you can’t Do you use iTunes or Windows Media Player to just listen to music?
get iTunes on Linux, you won’t be able to sync your music with your Then you’ll want to get Amarok, which will help you organise and listen
device, but never fear, because Gtkpod can help you manage your to your digital music collection on your computer. It can also help you
iPod and iPhone library. import and export music to your MP3 player.

Evince Viewer (Acrobat reader) K3b (CD/DVD writer)

PDF is one of the most prevalent file types online, and just because If you use Windows Explorer or a third-party program such as Nero
Linux doesn’t have Adobe Reader, you’re not left out. Evince Document Burning ROM to write CDs and DVDs with your own data, then K3b is
Viewer is faster, lighter and does everything Adobe’s software can. It’s an excellent alternative that does the job just as well, and once again
also installed by default on many Linux distros. it’s completely free.

OpenShot (Movie Maker) F-Spot (Image Viewer)

For any budding directors out there – don’t worry about the lack of For organising your photos, tagging them, making light edits and then
Windows Movie Maker or Sony Vegas and the like, because OpenShot sharing them with the world, F-Spot is the perfect replacement for
is a versatile and powerful video editor that will help transform your Windows Image Viewer. This is the ideal program for photographers
home movies when using Linux. with hard drives bursting at the seams with digital snaps.

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 Linux apps

Rhythmbox:
Playing media
Get your music collection blasting from your speakers and super-organised,
then watch some videos too, it’s all in a day’s work for Ubuntu!

R
emember the days when we used to buy CD players rip CDs, add album art to digital files automatically, purchase
with built-in radios, or cassette tapes for listening to songs online and stream from another PC or network
our music? No? You’re not alone. When it’s possible attached storage.
Quick to carry around a lifetime’s worth of tunes on your phone, and Before you start using Rhythmbox, however, there’s one
stream audio wirelessly to your TV or HiFi system wirelessly, important thing you’ll need to bear in mind. By default,
tip why on Earth would you invest in something so archaic? Ubuntu doesn’t include the software codecs required to
When it comes We’ll wager everyone needs a good media player on their playback the common MP3 format which many people use to
to online music,
desktop, however. Whether it’s to enjoy music or internet store songs diigtally. Because many parts of the MP3 codec
there’s a desktop
client for Spotify radio while you work, or watch a movie on your laptop while are still protected by patents, Linux distributions are unable to
that can be added travelling by train, digital media should be enjoyable include it as standard without paying a licence fee.
to Ubuntu and whenever, wherever and however you need it. Fortunately, the way around this is simple. Open up the
Google Play Music And fortunately, Ubuntu has all the tools you need for Ubuntu Software Centre and search for “Ubuntu Restricted
works through the
playback built-in. If you’re coming from Windows, there is one Extras”. If it’s not installed yet, click to download and there’s
browser. Netflix can
be accessed if you key adjustment you’ll have to make. Microsoft’s operating little your PC will left unable to play.
install the Chrome system comes with the all-encompassing Windows Media Back to Rhythmbox, and the first time you open it up
browser, or use the Player built-in, which is a hub for both music and video played you’ll want to point it at the place where you keep your song
User Agent Override
back from a local source – like a hard drive or USB key – or files stored in order to build up its library list. Open up the Edit
add-on in Firefox.
a networked drive. For entertainment purposes, Ubuntu has menu and click Preferences, then Music. Click the Browse
separate applications for video and music playback. button to direct Rhythmbox to your Music library folder if it’s
For music, that application is Rhythmbox, which can not the default one, and then put a tick in the box “Watch
manage your audio library, stream from remote services or my library for new files”. Now any songs and albums in your
a household server, and rip CDs directly to your hard drive. library will be added to the Rhythmbox home screen, and
For video, the Totem player – which appears in the Unity any time you rip a CD, purchase music through Rhythmbox
launcher under the name Videos – serves similar purposes. or add music from a portable player it’ll be saved to the
Probably the
best Ubuntu same physical place.
video player, VLC Living in a Rhythmbox You’ll also see options in this screen to select the
is a must-have As far as audio goes, Rhythmbox is as fully featured as you format and quality for ripping music, and also for the
install. need. It can be used to playback music from a local library, naming convention you prefer in filenames that are
automatically generated.
Once you’ve loaded some music up, the main view for
Rhythmbox is fairly straightforward (see boxout above).
You’ll notice that the column on far left is pretty sparse
initially, with some basic library options for selecting music,
podcasts (see boxout) or internet radio stations. You can
also see what’s coming up in the play queue.
To start adding extra options here, you’ll need to visit
the Plugins menu, which you’ll find if you click on Tools in
the menu bar.
Rhythmbox comes with extra features which are
disabled by default. In this menu you can turn extras such
as Last FM scrobbling and the Jamendo music store. The
selection of plugins is fairly limited initially, but you can add
more with ease.
The one essential plugin to install is the Grilo suite, which
will enable you to stream from other computers and libraries
on your network. If Grilo isn’t already installed, open up the
Software Centre and search for grilo-plugins, then install the

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Exploring the Rhythmbox interface

Album art
Rhythmbox will automatically pull album art
from the net, but you might have to
set-up the plug-in first.

Library
From here you can select local libraries,
UPNP shares, internet radio or podcasts.

Add a source
The plus and minus buttons let you add a Play queue Artist list
source for you library. This can be a folder This list tells you what’s up and On the left is the artist list, on the right their
on your hard drive, a URL or a shared drive. coming on your playlist. albums and in the main window a track listing.

Base package from there. Enabling this in the Rhythmbox For videos, we’d recommend installing VLC. It has a
Plugins section should result in any shared libraries on your reasonably good library manager, and is also more bulletproof
network popping up in the left-hand menu. when it comes to playing back odd file formats than Totem.
Plus, it handles remote libraries over UPnP well.
Totem-ic The best all-round media manager, though, is arguably
While Rhythmbox is reasonably well featured, Totem – the Banshee. If you’re moving from Windows and want something
video player – is less so. It’s fine for playing back videos that looks and feels like Media Player, this is certainly worth
selected directly from the file browser, but as a library downloading and trying out. It handles music, video and UPnP
manager it doesn’t really cut it. You can add videos one by better than the default apps, plus it can connect directly to
one, but there’s no option to import a whole folder of videos the Amazon music store.
or to automatically detect UPnP servers on your network. One thing that Ubuntu is very good at, however, is
Totem does have one very useful feature though. If you controlling your music or video while the player app is in the
open up it up by selecting Videos from the Unity launcher and background. Once a song is playing in Rhythmbox or Banshee
click the Channels option at the top of the screen, you’ll get (or even Spotify) just click on the volume icon in the task bar
a selection of web videos including the latest movie trailers and you’ll get per-app volume controls and full playback tools
from Apple. You can add more from the Plugins menu. without having to re-open the app itself.

Quick
tip
Rhythmbox will
automatically check
for and download
your favourite
podcasts. Go to
Podcasts > Add
and you can search
the iTunes and
Miroguide libraries,
or add your own
via RSS.

A good alternative to Rhythmbox, Amarok includes a more colourful interface and more add-ons.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 37

 Linux apps

Gimp: Editing
photographs
Think you need professional tools to do a professional job? Think again: Linux
includes the best free photo editor around.

T
here’s one name which dominates digital photo used by professionals. Don’t be put off though, it’s easy to get
editing all around the world. Adobe, and more a grasp of the basics.
Quick specifically its Photoshop package, has been so The first thing you’ll notice is that not one but three
tip popular for so long it’s synonymous with the task and has windows have appeared on your desktop. In the classic
For those who like to become a verb. To “Photoshop” a picture is the same as layout, you’ll find the tools menu in a thin window on the left,
shoot in RAW mode conflating “to Google” for internet search or “to Hoover” for the main workspace in the middle and a window for extra
on their cameras,
there’s two
vacuuming the floor. controls like layers, colour channels and brushes on the right.
excellent options The bad news is that the vast majority of Adobe products It can be tricky at first to work in three different windows
for processing on aren’t available on Linux operating systems. Photoshop simultaneously, and there’s an option to display everything in
Linux. Darktable is certainly isn’t and probably never will be. one Window if this is putting you off. Just go to Windows and
a fully open source
Is that it then? The joys of Ubuntu and its ilk are not for tick Single Window Mode. This will give you a simpler layout
RAW editor you’ll
find in the Ubuntu photographers or those who like to tweak and digitally that you may be more accustomed too.
repositories, develop their snaps before sharing them with the world? If you can bear with it, however, we’d strongly advise
while Corel’s Of course it doesn’t. sticking to separate windows for all the docks. It allows you
AfterShot Pro is to create a working area on your desktop that’s exactly
a well supported
commercial
Get your Gimp on customised for your needs, and if you have more than one
contendor. We’d wager that even on Windows most people who monitor you can put the tools on one screen with the image
“Photoshop” their pictures aren’t using Photoshop. It’s full width on another.
an expensive piece of software after all and there’s lots
of alternatives. One of the best, which is available on Colour correction
Windows and Linux, is the wonderfully named GNU Image Gimp is, as we’ve said, a very powerful piece of software. It
Manipulation Program. includes tools for cutting out parts of an image, creating layer
Gimp is astonishingly powerful, so much so that it really is masks, the classic clone and heal brushes loved by art editors
almost as feature rich as Photoshop and certainly as capable for removing traces of humanity from a model’s skin and
for almost every task. It’s installed by default in Ubuntu, but if a wide range of filters and plug-ins – plus support for more –
you don’t have it you’ll find it in the Software Centre. for adding effects and punishing pixels into submission.
When you first open Gimp up, it can be a little intimidating. To get you started, though, here’s an easy exercise in
This is a professional piece of software and designed to be brightening up an underexposed photo. First, you’ll need to
get your photo into Gimp. A quick note – while Gimp does
support RAW files from cameras, we wouldn’t recommend it.
Better to convert your image to JPG, TIF or PNG first.
Now you can open your pic up just by dragging its icon
from the Files browser over the Gimp launcher or into the
workspace itself if Gimp is already running. You can also open
an image using the File menu if you prefer.
Our underexposed image is a little dark, but we’re not just
going to increase the brightness. That would be crude and
have the effect of removing some of the dynamic range
leaving you with a flat, washed out looking shot. We want to
try and keep rich shadows and preserve as much detail
without leaving the picture looking washed out.
The way to do this is to click on Colours and select Levels.
This is the tool that professionals use to correct exposure.
What you can see is a histogram which describes the “tonal
range” of your image. The left side of the graph represents
the amount of pixels in dark areas areas of the shot, and
The Levels dialogue is the first port of call for photo fixing. the right side light.

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Gimp key features

Filters
The Filters menu has a host of tools
for everything from adding blur to
cartoony frames.

Tools
The tools are a standard photo editing
kitbag. Everything you’d expect is here.

Options
Beneath the tools themselves you’ll
find a full array of customisation
options for tweaking their use.

Layers
The Layers window acts much the same as
Photoshop. You can split an image, add extra
layers and edit areas here.

You’ll notice three markers under the graph: one at either cast from the overhead lights. To remove this, you can use
end and one in the middle.A well exposed shot will have one of the three pipette symbols in the same Levels dialogue. Quick
readings all the way along the tonal range, depending on the From left to right, these allow you to select the black tip
Remember that for
contrast in the image captured. If a photo is underexposed, point, gray point and white point of an image. Gimp will quick photo fixes
however, all the readings will be bunched up at the left- work out what the other colours should look like from there. there are tons of
online photo editors
hand side of the graph with a flatline towards the right. The white point is the easiest to use – just click it then zoom
that work in a Linux
The best way to correct this is to drag the marker from in on a detail you know should be close to pure white. Teeth browser just as
the right towards the area where the tonal values kick in, or eyes are are good, as are clothes or table clothes. Select well as they do in
reducing the tonal range of the image to those values that as your white point and watch the whole image adjust Windows. Pixlr.
com is the best
that have readings. to something more natural looking.
known, and great
If you’re lucky, this will brighten the picture without And don’t worry if you don’t get it right first time. Just for quickly fixing red
destroying detail. Because the midpoint will also click on an different part of the image or the Reset button eye etc.
automatically adjust, it should retain a good contrast too, if all goes wrong.
which merely changing the brightness would wash out. That’s really just scratching the surface of what Gimp
As if that wasn’t enough, this single tools can also act to can do. In the basic toolbox you can scale images, select
correct the “white balance” of your picture. If you’ve taken a areas, draw paths, rotate or add text. The only way to learn
photo indoors, for example, you might have captured a yellow more is to try it out.

Gimp’s Unsharp
Mask is every
bit as good at
picking up detail
in images as
Photoshop’s.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 39

 Linux apps

Openshot: Start
video editing
Easily create home videos and slideshows with backing tracks using the
OpenShot open source video editing package.

I
f you believed that switching to using Ubuntu Linux
means giving up the ability to create videos and photos,
rest assured nothing could be further from the truth.
Quick The OpenShot Video Editor which is available from the
Ubuntu Software Centre can be mastered in a few minutes
tip but allows you to create high quality videos.
Other popular Although OpenShot isn’t by any means the only video
Ubuntu editors
editor that will work well in Ubuntu, it strikes an effective
include Pitivi and
Kdenlive. Both are balance between being simple to pick up, but having features
available to install advanced enough to create a professional looking video.
from the Software In this tutorial we will explore how to import both video Background music has been added to Track 1, a cat video
Centre if you want clips and pictures into OpenShot, then export them as video. is on Track 2. Note the original audio has been muted.
or need a more
In order to proceed, you will need to have imported the
advanced editor.
video, pictures and music you wish to use to your computer it’s simply a way for you to save your work as you go in
either via downloading it from the internet or digital camera. OpenShot. Creating a video will come later in the tutorial.
Once your media is safely on your computer, click on the Next, click the green + icon to import media files such as
‘Ubuntu Software’ icon to open the Software Centre and video clips. In the example below, a single video clip has been
search for ‘OpenShot’. Click ‘Install’ to download the program. used but you can select multiple clips by holding down Ctrl
Quick Once complete a button marked ‘Launch’ will appear. and clicking on each file to select. Click on the ‘Add’ button at
Your first step when launching OpenShot should be to the bottom right to import the files. You will see they will
tip create a new project. Either click the ‘New Project’ button at appear in the ‘Project Files’ window at the top left.
If you want to trim a the top left or hold down Ctrl + N. A window will appear
clip, consider using
the ‘Resize Tool’
allowing you to name the project and choosing where to store Tracks, titles and timelines
to the right of the the project files e.g in your Videos folder. Once your media has been imported, the next step is to drag
Razor Tool. Move to At this stage do not worry about the video settings under them into the ‘tracks’ on the timeline. This is fairly self
the edge of a clip ‘Project Profile’ as they can be changed later. Choose ‘Save explanatory as the timing is displayed along the top and you
and then hold your
Project’ when you are done. The folder you chose will save a can place your clips anywhere; for instance you may want one
left mouse button
to resize. project file detailing the name of your project and the location clip to begin playing after 3 seconds and another immediately
of any media you have imported using the file extension .osp. after the first clip is finished. By default the timeline marks
This is not a video file and cannot be played in a media player, every 8 seconds though you can change this by sliding the
bar at the top right.
You will notice there are two tracks displayed at first where
you can copy content. You don’t have to use more than one
track, but if you plan to use more advanced features like
transitions, titles and background music then it may be
simpler to devote a track to each clip. Click the green + icon
above the timeline to add more tracks if you wish.
It’s advisable to have a dedicated track for any
background music. Simply click the + button and drag an
audio file into the new track. Unless you want the original
video’s sound to play too, click the loudspeaker icon on the
left hand side of the video track to mute the audio.
At this stage you may also want to give your video a title.
To do this, hold down Ctrl + T to open the Title Menu. Click the
menu under ‘Start Here’ to choose the font and layout of your
title, then ‘Create New Title’ to set the text. The title will
Click the ‘New Project’ button at the top left to choose a location to save your appear in the Project Files and can then be dropped onto the
projects. This doesn’t have to be the same place where you export your video. timeline wherever you need it.

40 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Linux apps

OpenShot Slideshows
If you wish to create a video from a series of duration, as the name suggests. Finally the
photos, place them in a folder and make sure ‘Transition’ section allows you to choose a
they are sequentially numbered. Most digital transition between photos. This saves you the
cameras will do this for your automatically. time and trouble of inserting transitions
Use the ‘Import Files’ button to load all the individually, but naturally it will be the same kind
files into the ‘Project Files’ window. Next hold of transition e.g Vertical Blinds for every photo.
Ctrl+A to select all the files and right click them. By default the odd numbered photos will be
Choose ‘Add to Timeline’. added to track 1 and the even numbered to track
This new window that opens allows you to fine 2, although you can change this if you wish in the
tune the video settings. The ‘Timeline Location’ ‘Timeline’ location section. Click ‘Add’ when done.
section lets you alter the time at which the At this point you may wish to add an
images are displayed – you may wish to leave a additional track for background music.
few seconds delay if you are going to add a title. Slideshows are exported as video in the usual
The ‘Fade’ section allows you to choose if the way by clicking the ‘Export Video’ button at the Use the arrow keys on the left to change
photos will fade in and out as well as set the top and you’re all done. the order of the pictures.

Sometimes you may wish only to create a video with short

clips from a larger recording, for instance to play speeches at
a wedding. The Razor tool can be activated easily by clicking
the scissors icon at the top of the timeline. Once you have
done so, you’ll notice that the cursor will change to a picture
of a razor blade with a blue dotted line.
Left click your mouse to split your video into any number
of clips. You can then right-click on individual clips and choose
‘Remove Clip’ to delete them altogether. If you want to move
snipped clips around, click on the ‘Arrow Tool’ on the timeline
to deactivate the razor tool and then move the clips to
elsewhere on the timeline or a new track.

Effects and transitions Click the ‘Transitions’ tab to drag and drop between video clips or photos.
OpenShot contains dozens of built in video effects to enhance
Right click on a transition and select ‘Properties’ to fine tune.
clips. Simply right-click on the clip in question and select
‘Properties’. Next click the ‘Effects’ and the green + button on
the bottom left to add an effect from the menu. Transitions are particularly useful for moving between Quick
A mini preview of your video clip will display on the left- images or video clips in a stylish way. Click the ‘Transitions’ tip
Remember that
hand side. Click on the play button to see what your intended tab at the top-left to see the various kinds available e.g
If you have many
effect will look like before clicking ‘Apply’. Remember you can Vertical Bars and drag onto the timeline. It can be helpful to different types
apply more than one effect to the same clip. OpenShot use different tracks for the transitions to avoid overlapping of media it can
helpfully places a small star on video clips which have been clips. If you wish to fine tune the settings for a transition, right be confusing to
enhanced with effects. You can remove them at any time by click and select ‘Properties’. You will be able to specify a new navigate them all.
Click on the ‘Video’,
going into the clip properties, highlighting the effect name position, length and even direction for your transition. ‘Audio’ and ‘Image’
with your mouse and clicking the red – button. button to show only
While you’re inside the Clip Properties window, take time Exporting videos that type.
to explore the other tabs such as ‘Speed’ and ‘Layout’ to see You can use the Play button on the built-in video player to
where it’s possible to fine tune the settings for each clip. This check the project has been done to your satisfaction. You can
may be important if you wish to time your video exactly to also navigate by clicking the timeline and use the space bar to
music or simply change the length without using the razor play and pause if you need to examine a specific section.
tool. Click ‘Apply’ when you are done. Once you are satisfied, click the red ‘Export Video’ button
at the top of the window. Specify a filename for your video
and choose a location e.g your Desktop. When it comes to
choosing a profile if you plan to share the video online choose
‘Web’. You can further fine tune the settings for individual
websites e.g Youtube by using the ‘Target’ menu. Click the
‘Export Video’ button when done. The file will appear in your
chosen folder once the progress bar is complete.

Further Reading
This guide only scratches the surface of the power of
OpenShot. For more information on additional features visit
the official manual at www.openshotusers.com/help/1.3/
Use the Play button in the ‘Clip Properties’ menu to en/. For further help from friendly users and to see some
experiment with different effects. Don’t be afraid to stunning examples of videos created in OpenShot head over
explore the other tabs if you need to modify your clip. to the forum at http://openshotusers.com/forum/.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 41

 Linux apps

Audacity:
Editing audio
Splicing, cutting and getting rid of awful noise are all within your
grasp thanks to the free frills of Linux’s top audio editor.

W
hile Linux has a sterling reputation as a server want to edit a podcast or a recording of your kids’ school
and desktop operating system, it’s less well choir into something you can upload online? Don’t worry,
known that many major studios also use Linux Ubuntu has you covered there too.
for their creative workstations too. When it comes to high
end audio production, for example, there are many powerful Sound it out
and stable packages that professional studios use for The “go to” software for audio editing in Ubuntu is Audacity.
mastering music and film soundtracks all around the world. Actually, Audacity is the hero application for basic sound work
Industry grade programs for audio editing include the on all platforms, it’s really that good. In Ubuntu, you’ll find it
excellent Ardour and LMMS (formerly known as the Linux in the Software Centre just by searching for its name, so
Multimedia Studio). You’ll find both of these suites in the installing it is just a click and a password away.
Quick Ubuntu Software Centre and they’re well worth looking By comparison to the DAWs mentioned above, Audacity
tip at just to understand the full potential of your OS. Both is much more simple in its appearance. By default there’s
If you’re trying to are completely free to download and use, and open room in the window for a single stereo sample and a bunch
remove a section source to boot. of straightforward editing tools. Don’t let that deceive you,
of audio, zoom in Before you get too involved, however, it’s worth pointing however. Audacity has just about everything even a
and make sure out that Ardour and LMMS are top-end Digital Audio professional needs for preparing tracks.
you’re only the file
at the exact point
Workstations (DAWs). They’re a complete recording studio First thing you’ll need to do with Audacity is feed it some
the waveform goes in software form, with virtual mixing desks, WAV editors, music, but before that you’ll need to make sure that the
across the zero line. MIDI sequencers and more built in; Ardour or LMMS give music can be read. Just as with playing back music (covered
Anywhere else, and you the kind of environment the late George Martin would earlier), if you want to work with sounds stored in popular but
the edit will have an
have paid millions for, literally for free. DAWs support a huge closed formats like MP3, you’ll need to install Ubuntu
audible click when
played back. Also variety of inputs and external hardware for audio production, Restricted Extras from the Software Centre. This will add all
remember you can and include virtualised version of equipment that’s the the codecs for common media files to your PC.
insert silences and mainstay of audio engineers. From Audacity, there are two ways to load music into the
background noise For the newcomer, however, they’re more than a little editing window. Under the File menu, you’ll see options for
to make edits to
speech sound
bit intimidating. They each have multiple windows and are Open and for Import. If you select Open, or you drag and drop
more natural. stuffed with technical jargon. What if you’re not scoring your an audio file into the Audacity workspace or onto its icon in
latest composition for six mics and a string quartet, but just the Dash, your file will open up as a new project. If you select
Import, it will load as a new track (or tracks) into the project
you’re currently working on.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll see your file represented
as a wave form in the editor. If you imported a file recorded
in stereo, you’ll see two tracks in your workspace, one for
the right source and one for the left. You can add extra tracks
using the Tracks menu at the top of the screen – they’ll
appear underneath the initial one or two.
If you’ve never seen an audio file as a wave form before,
it’s fairly easy to understand. The middle of each track, at the
0 point on the y-axis, represents silence. So if there’s a part of
the audio with a long flat line in the middle, there’s nothing
recorded there. Sounds are represented as spikes on either
side of that line.
At this point, there’s two keyboard shortcuts you should
learn by heart. The first is the spacebar, which starts the
audio playing from wherever the current marker is and also
stops playback. The second is the Control key. Hold this and
scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the waveform.
If you need to remove segments of audio seamlessly, zoom in and cut at the If you zoom in close, you can see that what looks like
exact point where it crosses the 0 line. triangular chunks on both sides of the 0 line is actually one

42 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Linux apps

Of all the Audacity!

Playback controls
Simple playback controls let you listen
to the tracks you’re editing. Make sure
you hit Stop before saving.

Track controls
You can mute a track or change
the stereo balance between left and right
from here.

Mic in
You can record directly from a Draw tool Trim and silence
microphone into Audacity – tweak The pencil icon is the draw tool, with which These two wave icons let you remove the rest of
the levels so you get good peaks. you can make manual edits to the wave form. the track and leave your selection or vice versa.

long graph that moves rapidly above and below the line. you can apply to your sounds. Select and area or an entire
Using Audacity is simple. Move the marker by clicking your track and you can amplify it, compress the dynamic range
mouse on the time code, and you can play back from that (so the quiet bits get louder and loud bits get quieter) or add
point, mark it for editing later or slice a sample at the mark. echoes, speed up the tempo and more.
The main commands that you’ll use to start with are There’s far too many filters to describe in detail, suffice to
Trim and Cut. These two are basically the inverse of each say that the majority are software versions of those that have
other: you begin by selecting an area of the file by click and been in use in recording studios for decades.
dragging to highlight (or shift dragging from the current Once you’ve trimmed your audio track, added your effects
market position), then you can remove that section of a track and edited in open and closing theme songs (assuming
using Cut or isolate it and remove everything else using Trim. you’re working on a podcast), exporting it to something
Remember, though, that if you’re working on multi-track useful is simple. By default, Audacity will save an
audio trimming or cutting one track might leave it out of uncompressed WAV file as part of a project. Choose Export
sync with others. Audio from the File menu to save as an Ogg Vorbis, MP3 or
The next most important part of is the Effects menu. any other more common format suitable for playback on
Here’s where you’ll find a suite of industry standard filters any device later.

Quick
tip
If you want to
try out Ardour or
LMMS, head over
to their respective
websites, http://
lmms.io and
http://ardour.
org. There’s tons of
documentation at
both sites to help
you get started on
your professional
mastering station.

Hugely
powerful but also
hugely complex,
Ardour is a full
recording studio
on your laptop.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 43

 Linux apps

Web browsers:
Pick the best
How do you see the web? Seems a simple question, but you might be
surprised at the difference when you check out the best browsers available.

W
hat is a computer if not a portal to the internet, find out exactly how to extract those bookmarks. Time to look
Quick these days? Accessing the online world is at your options for Ubuntu!
tip absolutely essential, and Linux is not short of
Each browser web browser options. Many of them will be familiar if you’re Browser history
has a different used to going online in other operating systems, some are The most established browser on Linux is probably Firefox
way of importing variations (based on the software, but not exactly the same) which, although it’s lost a little market share in recent years,
bookmarks –
and some are fairly unique, unusual browsers to try as well. displays the entire web perfectly and includes some neat
check your chosen
browser’s help file The good news if you’re fairly established with your features. Newer versions allow you to synchronise your tabs
for more details current browser is that it’s usually rather easy to transfer your between devices if you sign in to all of them with the same
on how to do it. bookmarks over, so you won’t lose those vital links. So before Firefox Account, for example, so it’s easy to pick up where you
we look at your options, let’s back these up from another left off if you’re jumping from machine to machine – or even
system so that we can import them later on. user account to user account. Similarly, you can use the
Firefox Hello system to browse the web simultaneously with
Backing up bookmarks other Firefox users, which is great for remote working,
In Google Chrome, click the three-lined hamburger menu planning, or just hanging out online.
icon, go to Bookmarks, and click Bookmarks Manager. You may also find a browser named Iceweasel – this is, for
Click the ‘Organize’ drop-down menu and select Export all intents and purposes, Firefox in all but name. Certain minor
Bookmarks. This will create an HTML file which you can elements and trademarks attached to Firefox, such as the
later import into the browser of your choice. logo, have been changed due to them violating the
If you’re using Internet Explorer you’ll find the setting in requirements of free software distribution. Also rebranded
File/Import and Export/Export Favourites. Microsoft Edge, were email client Thunderbird (Icedove), ‘internet application
despite being newer, isn’t quite as friendly, but thankfully suite’ Seamonkey (Iceape) and seemingly abandoned
Firefox can import Edge bookmarks. To get them (and the rest calendar app Sunbird (Iceowl). Expect these frigid alternatives
of your bookmarks) out of Firefox, click the bookmarks to disappear soon, as distro creators seem to be working out
icon, Show All Bookmarks, and follow the steps within their differences with Firefox’s parent company Mozilla.
Import and Backup. Second to Firefox is Chromium, an open-source browser
Sadly we’re not made of space here, so users of other (available in a number of user-developed flavours) that forms
browsers will have to hit up their favourite search engine to the basis of Google Chrome. It doesn’t include all of the

Alternative Browsers
Lynx Midori NetSurf Opera Pale Moon
lynx.browser.org midori-browser.org www.netsurf-browser.org www.opera.com www.palemoon.org
Classic text-mode Using the GTKWebKit Originally coming from So often the browser A notable fork of Firefox
browsing, run from within engine (a fork of the RISC OS – an ARM-based bridesmaid but never that will please those who
a terminal window. Lynx is Blink rendering engine operating system that the browser bride, Opera aren’t too happy about
mostly a curiosity these that powers Chrome, grew out of the Acorn is a clean, fast and quite the modern browser style,
days due to its archaic Chromium and Opera), Archimedes – NetSurf wonderful program this clings to an old-
makeup, and it’s only Midori is the default has been ported to a that deserves more school, fully-customisable
really useful on machines browser of the xcfe number of platforms recognition than it gets. user interface and uses its
which absolutely cannot window manager and since, including AmigaOS. The Opera Turbo feature, own rendering engine,
output anything other features in a number of It’s not the absolute best which compresses your Goanna, which forked
than text mode, but it can lightweight distributions browser, but it uses its web traffic, is particularly from Gecko, the Firefox
be interesting to see how (Bodhi, SystemRescueCD, own unique rendering useful if you’ve got a slow rendering engine. It’s
the web looks without Manjaro Linux). It does engine, so if your Linux internet connection or if actively updated and high-
images or modern well on the tests we’ve install struggles with your ISP blocks access to performance, so well
rendering techniques. listed in this article. others, give it a try. certain sites. worth a look.

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 Linux apps

features of its big trademarked brother – usually missing

things which use proprietary non-open technology like Flash
player – but it runs the same rendering engine, which means
web sites look just as good. It also manages memory in the
same way, allocating a portion for each of your open tabs,
which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because if
one tab has a problem it doesn’t bring down the rest with it,
but a curse because Chromium requires a relatively large
amount of memory to run multiple tabs.
While you’re unlikely to find big-boy Chrome in your
distro’s package manger, it’s simple to get hold of the real
thing. Just head to google.com/chrome, click Download
Now, and select the appropriate file for your distro (usually
64-bit deb, if you’re using Ubuntu). Click Accept and Install,
then open the resultant file with your package manager to get
it installing. You’ll need to run it from a terminal the first time;
launch one by clicking the search button, searching for
‘terminal’ and selecting the Terminal application, then type Chrome probably isn’t available in your package manager, so you’ll need to
head to its website (in a different browser) to get hold of it.
google-chrome-stable to start it up. Once it’s run once, it’ll add
its icon to your launcher so you can start it more easily.
In both cases here we’d suggest it’s best to run Firefox To the extreme Quick
and Chrome over their open source alternatives. While this The most extreme rendering test we could find lives at
doesn’t match the freedom philosophy of Linux, you’re web.basemark.com. Browsermark, for that is its name,
tip
probably not in this for philosophical reasons. Having the runs a series of heavyweight tests that push your browser’s Don’t fret if your
browser doesn’t
absolute latest version of your chosen web browser is vital for performance in a number of ways, beyond just HTML5
max out every
security and compatibility reasons, and sometimes forked or CSS, and might also give you some clues about the test – if you’re
software just doesn’t keep up with the times. performance of your PC. Make sure your machine doesn’t happy with the way
There are numerous other browsers available for Linux go to sleep while it’s running, which should take about five it displays pages,
which all serve different purposes. Well, OK, usually they’re minutes. When it’s complete, you’ll be given a final score, that test result
doesn’t really
there to provide you with a browsing experience that requires see which percentile your browser and desktop combined matter!
a smaller memory footprint for lower end machines. You’ll sits on, and even get a bit of information about the
find out more about these in the ‘Alternative browsers’ box. performance of your ISP.
While we’ve made some vague recommendations here,
Testing capabilities your choice of browser is really going to come down to
How well does your browser actually perform? Different personal taste and what works best for your Linux system. All
browser options render online elements in different ways, so computers and desktops perform differently, so you’re
it’s worth testing your chosen browser (and its competitors) always encouraged to experiment, install, test, and find the
thoroughly to make sure you’re getting the best experience. best choice for you. Once you’ve done that, the internet is
Head first to the Acid tests at www.acidtests.org, a long- your oyster. Happy browsing.
standing series of rendering engine-
stretching challenges which will prove
how well your browser adheres to
particular web standards or, at least, it
shows how well your browser performs
these particular tests.
A more modern benchmark is the
HTML5 Test, found at html5test.com.
While this doesn’t animate any pretty
pictures or give you a visual
representation of your browser’s flaws
(boo) it does give you a detailed list of
everything your browser can or can’t do,
with a score to match. Many Linux
browsers are going to lose a few points
for leaving out closed source
technologies, so bear this in mind
before you rush to uninstall your current
option. The vast majority of websites
include fallback options away from
proprietary software anyway, and many
of these are now becoming the norm The HTML5 test is a great way to see how muscular your browser truly is, but it’s not the be all and
rather than the alternative. end all of browser performance.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 45

 Linux apps

Steam: Play
games on Linux
Linux is fun, no really! You can even play games and these days that’s not just
years old remakes, but same-day release big-name AAA releases.

L
inux is great for work. Linux is great for servers. Linux is
great for old PCs. No one says Linux is great for
gaming, or do they? Go back just four years to 2012
and it’s true, Linux was bereft of almost any native games.
About the most fun you could have with Linux was
recompiling the kernel to patch the latest zero-day exploit.
Then Steam arrived, released in late 2012 the biggest digital
gaming platform landed on Linux and gaming life was never
the same again…
Several years on and Linux now offers over 2,000 gaming
titles on Steam, a number that continues to grow steadily
with over 500 titles being added during 2016 alone, including
big-name titles such as Mad Max, Deus Ex 2, Rocket League,
Life is Strange and the new Tomb Raider reboot. We’ll take a
look at how you can safely install Steam on Ubuntu 16.10 and
get gaming as easily as possible.
Before we start we should say that not only is there a
plethora of choice when it comes to gaming on Linux, it’s now Careful now
easier than ever to get started. Although Valve’s proprietary Do not install Steam via the Valve website. Valve in the correct
storefront has its issues – such as game DRM– it does make way does offer a Linux install package on its Steam website,
installing and running games an incredibly simple process. It’s this will appear to install but due to required additional
also not the only game in the Linux-verse, Good Old Games dependencies won’t work. It also doesn’t provide any useful
(www.gog.com) is another service that sells games for Linux. error messages to help you work out the problem.
It offers a mix of classic games (that have been made The correct way to install Steam is from the Ubuntu
compatible with modern computers), new games and has a maintained repositories. We’ll show you below, it involves the
no-DRM policy. Another online store that lets you have fun Terminal but don’t worry it’s really easy. You may also wonder
and give to charity is www.humblebundle.com and offers a why you can’t find Steam in the official Ubuntu Software
range of DRM-free Linux games. store, due to the cutting-edge release of Ubuntu 16.10 not all
packages can be found here yet. So we have to revert to the
traditional Terminal-based install.
Use the Dash Search (top-left icon) and type Terminal,
click the Terminal icon to open the black text interface. Here
type the line below, press enter and enter your password:
$ sudo apt-get install steam
You’ll get a stream of text alluding to the required
packages that need to be installed and a final line along the
lines of below, type Y to accept:
0 to upgrade, 43 to newly install…
Need to get 22.4MB of archives.
After this operation, 190MB of additional disk space...
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
A host of more text will scroll by, which is the Terminal
installing all of these packages. A text dialog will appear, press
tab to highlight YES and press return. Select I AGREE using
the down arrow key and press Return to install Steam itself.
Steam is now installed, you can type Steam and press
Bring your Steam library with you, any Linux games will appear as if by magic return in the Terminal to launch it. More easily you can open

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the Dash Search, type Steam and launch it from there. This
will place an icon in the Launcher dock.
Steam will download more of its own files - as it would on
Windows – but with this you can log in (or create an account)
and gain access to your gaming library, though restricted to
Linux supported games.

Performance
Gaming is one of the more demanding things a home user
can do with their PC. Modern games use more memory,
processor power and 3D graphics resources than almost any
other program. Most games offer a recommended and
minimum specification. Take the latest Deus Ex 2 game, it has
an incredibly high requirement of 16GB of memory and only
the latest graphics cards just to play at 1080p resolutions.
Linux does have something of a disadvantage against
Windows, as currently few games are optimised for Linux, so
The gaming police will be checking to see if you’re running Linux or not and
many tend to perform around 20% slower on Linux. Now that
quite possibly mock you for gaming on a server platform. The future is harsh.
Linux is established we’d expect newer games to provide
better optimisations in the future.
Certainly though if you want to play any 3D games you will speed of the system as it is just ensuring the system as a
need a suitably powerful 3D graphics card. Newer Intel and whole is fast enough to play modern games.
AMD processors do have basic 3D capabilities that are able to Of course, if you’re more interested in older titles then an
power games on basic settings at 720p resolutions. Ideally older, slower system will work just fine. But in that case you
though we’d recommend you to invest in a dedicated 3D likely don’t need the fancy new graphics card either! The
graphics card such as the Nvidia GeForce 1050 or the AMD Linux and open source world is awash with classic emulators
Radeon 460. Both of these cards costs around £120 and will so you can run classic software for the Amiga, ZX Spectrum,
provide great 3D performance. Just ensure you enable the C64, classic arcade machines and even recent consoles. It’s
proprietary drivers. just a case of installing the emulator you’re after, grabbing a
Ideally the rest of your PC needs to be up to scratch as few games that you own of course and firing it up. Most of
well, otherwise having a lovely shiny new graphics card will be these classic emulators don’t require much power and even
something of a waste. You’ll want at least 4GB of memory but 15-year old systems should be able to cope!
8GB these days is more the thing. The processor also needs
to be something that was made in the last five or six years
and be at least dual core. This is as much about the overall

Ensure you choose the terminal install to make sure everything works.

Windows games on Linux

Wine (see page 58 for a guide) is a compatibility layer To install, open up the Terminal and type
that enables many Microsoft Windows programs to sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
run on Linux. Although it’s usually used for running sudo apt-get update
office suites and other programs that haven’t made it sudo apt-get install wine1.8
to Linux (or don’t have an open source alternative), it and a window will pop up asking you to read and
can also be used for running Windows games in Linux agree to a EULA by Microsoft. You might have hoped
as well. Of course, there’s a performance impact to you’d left all this behind, but it’s a necessary step to
running a game via Wine rather than natively, so it’s using Wine. Once you’ve scrolled down and agreed,
not really recommended for graphically demanding type in $ winetricks . To run the graphical user
games – unless you have one hell of a machine. interface for Wine. You may have to install additional
However if you have CDs of some old Windows packages, and Wine will take you through the
games lying around, or you want to try an indie title process. With ‘Select the default wineprefix’ selected If a game isn’t available then
that hasn’t made it to Linux just yet – then Wine is a click ‘OK’ and then you can begin installing required perhaps you can just run the
great possible solution. software to run Windows games in Linux. Windows version?

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 47

 Linux apps

Social: Network
with friends
Integrate your social networking accounts into your Ubuntu Desktop.

T
he Firefox browser in Ubuntu can be used to access Flickr is an image hosting service similar to Picasa but is
any number of social networks, however you may find run by Yahoo. Anyone can access photos and videos
it easier simply to access them from your desktop. uploaded to the website without an account but users must
Ubuntu’s Unity desktop integrates well with Google Drive, register in order to share their own content.
Flickr and Facebook to blend your online and offline data. If you have a Yahoo e-mail address then you will be able to
To get started, click the Search button at the top left of the sign into Flickr right away. Click on Add Account on the left
screen and type in Online Accounts. Click the Online Accounts hand side of the Online Accounts window, then on Flickr. You
icon to launch the window. By default it will show accounts will be asked to sign in with your Flickr ID.
that are compatible with all applications on your computer. Once you are signed in, the Photos Search feature will
work in the same way as for Google Photos. Simply click on
Quick Integrating the Ubuntu search icon and enter your search terms.
Google Account Users can double click on the word Google to If you use Ubuntu’s photo manager Shotwell, you can also
tip configure their account. Enter your username, then your publish photos to Flickr and Google Photos from within the
If your Google password. You will then be asked to authorise Ubuntu to app itself. Simply highlight your photos or videos of choice
Account uses Two
access your data. Click Allow to permit this. and choose File … Publish. If you have not previously used
Step Verification,
you may need to set Once setup is complete the online accounts window will Shotwell to manage your photos, you can see more
up an app-specific list the applications that can integrate with your account. By information on this in the official manual.
password for the default they are switched on individually. One of the most
Ubuntu Desktop.
See http://bit.ly/
handy features is the Photo Search Plugin. This allows you to Desktop notifications
use the search icon to look for photos stored in Picasa (now Certain websites like Gmail, Twitter and Facebook support
LXF26social
known as Google Photos). Searches for files can now also push notifications that show a small pop-up even when you
include those stored in your Google Drive. don’t have their web page open. For instance Facebook can
If you have any online Google calendars, the Calendar show an alert when you get a new message or notification.
application in Ubuntu will also import them automatically. This feature is available in Firefox but has not been fully
Take a moment to check they have been displayed correctly. implemented, so if you’d like to see pop ups for new Facebook
The application is bidirectional in that any add or modify in notifications, tweets or e-mails, try installing the Chromium
Ubuntu will also update your online Google calendars. web browser from the Ubuntu Software Centre. Once
Chromium is installed click the icon to launch it and visit your
website of choice. You will be asked to agree to allow desktop
notifications for that site. Click Allow for the notifications to
appear. Each time an alert pops up you can click on it to be
taken to the site in question.

Instant Messaging
There are a number of applications available in the Ubuntu
Software Centre that will connect to multiple instant accounts
such as AOL Instant Messenger or Google Hangouts without
having to visit each website individually.
Previously Ubuntu came with the messaging client
Empathy pre-installed, however this has been dropped in the
most recent version the operating system. Fortunately it’s
very easy to install. Open your web browser and go to
https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/empathy,
then click the red button marked available in the Ubuntu
Software Centre. A new window will open click Open Link to
begin installing Empathy.
Click on Google to sign into your own account. You can control which Once Empathy opens click Account Settings to open the
individual applications will integrate with the Ubuntu desktop. Online Accounts window. You will see that there is a new

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Setting up Skype
As Skype is currently developed by Microsoft and the most recent major version was released in such as Gajim and Psi, both of which can be
doesn’t release its source code, you won’t find it 2014. Skype Developers are trying to address this installed via the Software Centre.
in the Ubuntu Software Centre. by launching a test alpha version. This version is
Nevertheless, if you visit www.skype.com you still in an experimental phase and will have some
will see that there is a version available for bugs but if having Skype is important to you, you
Ubuntu. Click on Choose your distribution and can help by installing and providing feedback.
then Ubuntu 12.04 multiarch to begin Visit http://bit.ly/LXF26skype and click
downloading. A prompt will appear asking if you Download Skype for Linux Alpha Deb. The alpha
want to open the file with software install. Click version is capable of calling Skype users on
OK. Once the file has downloaded open your mobile devices and Windows and Mac computers
Ubuntu Software Centre to see the entry for but cannot call people using the official Linux
Skype and click Install. Launch Skype by typing client available from the main page.
the name into your search bar. There are a number of video conferencing Choose Ubuntu 12.04 to get the installer
The official Skype Linux client is rather dated; programs available for Ubuntu besides Skype for the official Skype 4.3 Linux Client.

don’t need to have the pages for those sites open, Chromium
itself needs to be running for you to see the alerts.
Quick
Neither Pidgin, nor Empathy support messaging via tip
Remember that
Facebook. This is because in April 2015 Facebook dropped Online Accounts
supports publishing
support for the open XMPP (Extensible Messaging and
to Facebook
Presence Protocol ) which allowed third party apps to through Shotwell
connect to their chat servers. Fortunately you can still access as well as searching
your Facebook messages via https://facebook.com or through Facebook
https://messenger.com. photos. Click Add
Accounts then
Most Linux Messaging programs however do support choose Shotwell
XMPP (also known as Jabber), which uses a number of from the drop down
servers around the world to allow people to communicate menu. Next click
with each other freely. Visit www.jabber.org for more Facebook to set up
your account.
information and tips for registering an account.
Click Allow on supported websites to show an alert on If you like using a particular program to manage your
your desktop each time someone interacts with you. media or communications, don’t worry if there doesn’t seem
to be a version available for Ubuntu. First check the website
option for Empathy Messenger. Empathy is very easy to use to make sure that is really the case ; there is a Linux version of
but if you run into difficulties, there is plenty of support Skype for instance (see Setting up Skype above).
available from the GNOME website at https://wiki.gnome. If there’s no downloadable application for your program of
org/Apps/Empathy. choice, you may be able to access it through your browser.
Although Empathy integrates well into Ubuntu’s desktop, Whatsapp for instance can be run from inside a Firefox
it doesn’t support many different types of messaging window by visiting https://web.whatsapp.com and
protocols, nor is it very customisable. scanning in a code on your mobile phone.
Quick
Users who want to set up additional accounts and/or have If there’s no Linux or web version, search in the Ubuntu
tip
more control over their messaging can install Pidgin. Pidgin is Software Centre and on http://askubuntu.com to see if If you are trying
a very popular messaging program for Linux and supports there’s an equivalent program for what you need. to set up Google
AOL Messenger, Yahoo,ICQ, MSN Messener, Google Remember that if you integrate social networking into Hangouts to work
with Pidgin, click the
Hangouts, Apple’s Bonjour protocol and many more. your desktop or browser then anyone logged into your Advanced tab in the
To install Pidgin visit http://bit.ly/LXF26pidgin and account will be able to see your profile and messages. Always setup screen and
click the red APT Install button, then Install. ensure that you have a strong password and either suspend change the blank
On the first run, Pidgin will give you a variety of accounts your session or log out of Ubuntu completely each time you Server field to chat.
google.com.
to set up, choose accordingly and set up your accounts. leave your computer.
Pidgin supports cross messaging from one account to
another as well as a variety of plug ins. (For instance there is
one that lets you chat to Skype users). You can find help with
getting started by reading Pidgin’s manual at https://
developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Pidgin.

Social setbacks
Ubuntu is designed to work well with social networks, so it’s
unlikely you will have any problems with your desktop. If after
setting up an account you find that the connection is not
working e.g your Google Calendar isn’t appearing in the
Calendar application, try logging out and in again as this
usually fixes the issue.
If you choose to use desktop notifications for Twitter, Click Add Account on the left hand side of the window and choose Empathy
Facebook, Gmail and so on with Chromium, although you from the drop down menu to show which messaging protocols are supported.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 49

 Linux apps

Thunderbird:
Email made easy
Set up your very own desktop email client and keep your messages and
contacts close at hand rather than losing them in the cloud.

E
mail is one of the internet’s oldest technologies. What happens to your email archive if that provider goes
Quick It outdates the web, it outdates instant messaging bust, or a hacker forces their way in and changes your
and it even outdates the internet’s predecessor, password? These, and many other reasons, are why it
tip Arpanet. MIT, so often the innovator in these fields, makes sense to use a desktop email client that can be
Thunderbird started using software called Mailbox and SndMsg to backed up, store your messages offline, and live – if you
supports multiple
email accounts
leave messages for each other in 1965. The @ symbol was have such a facility set up – in an encrypted partition away
at once – just introduced to route mail to specific computers during the from prying eyes.
go to File > New development of Arpanet in the early 70s; by 1974 the US
> Existing Mail military was a heavy user, and by 1978 75% of all Arpanet Positive Outlook
Account to add
traffic was email. You could even reasonably give credit to If you’ve been around computers for a while, it’s probable
another.
email for inspiring the earliest development of the internet: that you’ve used Microsoft’s Outlook or Outlook Express,
this was a closed-system technology that the public packages which do just the job we’re looking for: downloading
couldn’t wait to use. mail from servers, storing it, sending new mails and replies,
We’d stake money on you having at least one email and backing up your inbox. Funnily enough, Microsoft’s
address, and if you’ve been around for a while you probably flagship mail package isn’t available on Linux platforms,
have several. While most email accounts now have some kind but Mozilla’s well-weathered Thunderbird is just as capable
of web interface for accessing your inbox and sending new and should be quite familiar to former Outlook users. We’ll
messages, it’s arguable that this may not be the best way to take you through installing it, configuring it to connect to
manage your mail. Say you lose your internet connection: an account, and beyond.
your inbox, stored entirely online, will be completely Let’s start by getting hold of it. Many distributions will
inaccessible. So many of us rely on old messages to remind have it installed by default – including Ubuntu, which we’re
us of information, this probably isn’t acceptable. using here – but if you don’t have it head to your local friendly
Security, too, should be a concern. How well do you trust package manager and search for Thunderbird Mail. Install as
your webmail provider not to snoop on your messages? usual (see the start of this chapter for more information on
package managers) then run it from its icon.

Postmaster
When you run Thunderbird for the first time, you’ll be given
the option to sign up for a new free email address – we’re
going to skip this particular step for this tutorial, so click
Skip. Next, fill in your current email details. Your email address
and password are the important parts here, the ‘Your name’
field doesn’t have to match the name you usually use for
the account, but it’s useful to use your real name here so
recipients know who’s emailing.
Brilliantly, Thunderbird now queries a database of
server information. If you’re using a recognised provider
like gmail.com or outlook.com, it’ll automatically grab the
correct ingoing and outgoing server details so you don’t have
to worry about it. More obscure providers may not be in the
database, however, so you may have to fill in the blanks
Adding an account, if you’re with a recognised provider, could not be easier – yourself. Your ISP or mailbox provider will provide the
just add your email address and password. appropriate information; we can’t tell you precisely what to

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POP3 vs IMAP
There are two ways to receive email: POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP
(Internet Message Access Protocol). POP downloads messages to your
computer and (usually) deletes the originals from the server. It’s the
classic method, and good for those using a single machine or with a
security-conscious bent: if the mails are gone from the server, it’s going to
be a lot more difficult for them to be traced or spied upon. There are big
disadvantages when it comes to using POP3 on multiple machines – since
it’s a one-way transaction, there’s no synchronisation between mailboxes,
so you won’t get an indication of the messages you’ve read or replied to,
and your filing systems won’t match up.
IMAP is a a two-way protocol, and probably the better choice if your
provider offers it. Folders, read status and message deletions will all match
up between the server and your mail client, meaning you can use the same
account on multiple machines – and indeed use webmail and Thunderbird
at the same time while keeping things synchronised.

put here, because very ISP is different. You can now choose you’ve read the message. Hit Preferences and you can
whether to use POP3 or IMAP with your account – see the choose to view images in just that email, for all messages
box above for more details on each – and hit Done. You may from that address or domain, or head to the main Remote
Quick
have to authorise the use of your email account in a further Content Preferences section where you can switch off this
tip
window, but you should only have to do this once. feature altogether. You can set up a
signature to add to
A quick note for Gmail users: if you have Google’s two-step When you’re creating a new message, you’ll probably
the bottom of all
authentication switched on (and you should do), you’ll need discover that Thunderbird doesn’t actually have an address of your outgoing
to generate an app-specific password and use that, rather book to start with, even if you’ve been using one with your messages in the
than your regular account password, to log in to your email webmail account. Manually importing your address book Edit > Account
through Thunderbird. (Tools > Import) is the only way to get this done. The process Settings menu.
is going to differ depending on your source, but it’s not
Split personality incredibly difficult.
Thunderbird’s default main screen lists your email account Different versions of Outlook tuck away the export options
and its subfolders on the left, and has a main window on the in slightly different menus, but you should be able to find
right split into two: the top pane contains the contents of them buried somewhere deep within the File menu. Make
your inbox, and the bottom pane contains the currently sure you that export your address book as Comma Separated
selected email. Try clicking on your inbox in the left column. Values or .csv, as Thunderbird is happy to accept this format.
Thunderbird will download all of your email from the server In Gmail, the process is much more straightforward. Simply
(this could take a while) and, if you’ve used IMAP, you should select the contacts section from the top left of the main
retain the read/unread status of your messages. By default, window, (just above the Compose button), click More then
the inbox view displays messages in date order with the Export to find the option.
oldest at the top, but you can quickly re-sort your messages
by clicking the column headers at the top.
Click on a message and you’ll see it appear in the bottom
pane of the main window. If this is a bit small, just hover your
mouse over the bar between the panes and drag up to give
yourself a bit more space. Still not enough room? Double-
click the message and it’ll open up in a tab of its own, giving
you the full height and width of your Thunderbird window to
play with. Click on the Inbox tab (or close the message tab) to
get back where you were. Further layout options can be found
in the View menu at the top of the screen.

In the book
While you have a message open, you’ll see all the usual email
functions (reply, reply all, forward etc.) lined up along the top
of the window, and you can always hit the Write button to fire
up a new mail.
If an email includes embedded images linked from the
internet, you’ll also, at least initially, see a bar with a
Preferences button. Thunderbird is restricting these images
because, unlike plain old email, senders can use images to Use the preferences button to determine which images you can see in emails
glean information about your computer, and whether you’re sent – you can get quite specific.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 51

 Doing more

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 Doing more

Doing
more
Dual boot two OSes ......................................54
Run Windows programs...............................58
Discover the Terminal ...................................60
Set up printers and scanners.....................64
Safely backup and restore.......................... 68
How to update Ubuntu ................................70
Change your desktop ................................... 72

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 53

 Doing more

Dual boot: Set

up two OSes
Afnan Rehman dives deep into the world of dual-boot systems to bring you
the simplest solution to the two OS problem.

Quick
W
e live in a world where multiple operating systems
tip hold a share of the desktop market and
applications aren’t always available on every
Make sure to platform that you want them to be, it’s often necessary to
disable Fast
have more than one OS available ready to boot. Virtual
Startup before
installing Ubuntu machines offer only a partial solution to this problem as do
to avoid issues with compatibility layer technologies such as Wine. The solution is
GRUB detecting to dual-boot two OSes on the same machine.
the Windows
The boot managers of modern day OSes can manage
installation. You
can disable it in the multiple systems and allow the user to choose which one to
Windows power boot at startup. This way you can have Windows OS and a
management Linux distro, so that you can keep the beautiful experience
advanced settings that is Linux while also accessing applications that still only
under ‘Shutdown
work well on for work or play. (Not every game supports
settings’ where you
can uncheck ‘Turn SteamPlay on Steam for Linux, although we’re getting closer). The Disk Management tool provides an easy to
on fast startup’. In this tutorial, we’ll focus specifically on dual-booting a Linux understand graphical interface for partitioning and
distribution (distro) with Windows. We will be using Ubuntu. managing storage on all disks that the OS has access to.
However, the steps in this tutorial can be adapted to other
Linux distros. USB drive and can be often purchased online or in store.
First, let’s talk a little bit about why we dual boot. There are Once you insert the media and boot the computer, a series of
many reasons people pursue a dual-boot solution, the key steps will guide you through the installation.
reasons being performance and compatibility. As most users The version of Windows that you choose to install
will tell you, it’s best to run things natively with access to the shouldn’t matter, whether it’s Windows 7, 8 or 10. The type of
computer’s hardware resources. The fact is, virtual machines program that’s used to get the system started after turning it
will severely restrict the amount of resources that you can on, either legacy BIOS or EFI boot, may matter in some cases
use. When you implement a dual-boot system, you’re able to but on most modern systems this won’t cause any major
boot as if Linux is the main OS and Windows weren’t there issues. Let’s get some basic terminology out of the way.
and vice versa. That gives you access to all the processing EFI stands for Extensible Firmware Interface, and most
cores, all system RAM and all expansion cards that the modern system partitions are in this format, which adheres to
computer has to offer, making it easy to run intensive the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard.
programs without slowdown. You also get access to all disks UEFI replaces the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that
and externally connected devices such as USB devices at full most PC devices used before. This is important mostly for
speeds (as long as the OS supports them, of course). more advanced users who wish to manually set partitions for
more customised setups. Since most modern systems use
How dual-booting works UEFI, we’ll work on the assumption that you will too.
For the sake of brevity, we will assume you are able to install Each hardware manufacturer has a different
Windows without a detailed explanation. It’s safe to say that if implementation of UEFI and each has its own unique quirks.
you’ve ever installed a Linux distro, you are more than ready Most have the same basic functions and structure, which
to install Windows on your own. If you’re a newcomer to Linux allow for the installation of different operating systems.
– welcome! – and you’re likely to have Windows installed on However, Different UEFIs can manifest major problems for
your current system (given that the Windows family still has some and instant success for others. Different button
around 90% of the market) and can proceed directly to settings, boot menus, and startup sequences can cause
creating a dual-boot system as a fresh reinstall of Windows problems when you are trying to mess with the boot
isn’t required. If you haven’t tried installing Windows before, sequence. It’s best to research your manufacturer’s UEFI
the process is simple and there are many guides online to manual beforehand and familiarise yourself with the settings
help you. The installation media is usually sold on a disk or before you try to change anything. Most system boot

54 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

What to do when you mess up

Should you need to repair the Ubuntu bootloader computer and boot into the live CD environment. and allow it to work its magic. Then all you have
after trying to install a dual-boot system, the From this environment, you can choose the Boot to do is reboot and the usual boot menu should
Ubuntu wiki has some great instructions for Repair tool which is built into the Live CD. appear. If not, you can hold left Shift key while
helping to repair the bootloader. The link is The boot repair guides you through solving booting to select between the two operating
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ more frequent problems, such as those systems. You can also try to repair it by opening a
RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows. associated with dual-boot and can also generate terminal. When you are given a standard Bash
The recommended way would be to use an error reports that you can share on forums or prompt, type:
Ubuntu live CD or USB that you created when email to your genius friends who are more Linux # sudo grub-install /dev/XXX
first installing Ubuntu. The simple graphical way savvy to get help with the issue. For recovering Replace XXX with your Ubuntu install device
is to insert your disk or flash drive, reboot the Ubuntu, you can click ‘Recommended Repair’ (eg. /dev/sdb).

sequences will feature a splash screen where you can press a pick and choose what to save for later. It would be best to
function key to gain access to boot settings menus (for save this backup on a separate physical device, such as a
Quick
example, it’s F9 for HP, F12 for Dell and Lenovo, F8 in Amibios different hard drive, a different computer or possibly cloud tip
and F11 in an Award BIOS) and you’ll need to know which key storage if you have enough space and a fast enough Always keep a copy
it is to open which menus and which settings to change. connection. The simplest way to back up everything you need of the Ubuntu live
Knowing these things beforehand can save you a lot of to back up is to make a recovery disc which will back up CD and Windows
installation disc on
headache should the need for troubleshooting arise. Windows itself and set up a File History backup to take care of
hand. These two
personal files. There are wizards located in the Control Panel discs are essential
Partition standards that will guide you through both of these backup processes. and will save your
You’ll also hear the acronyms GPT and MBR thrown around. The recovery disc will help you restore Windows system and bacon should the
worst happen.
These terms relate to how partitions in the hard drive are boot files in case something goes wrong with the operating
The tools and
organised and recorded. MBR, which stands for Master Boot system. File History will automatically back up personal files functionality will
Record, refers to the information stored in the first sector or to a designated device in case the worst comes to pass and help reverse most
partition of the hard drive that identifies how and where an your entire drive partition gets corrupted. common issues
operating system is located so that it can be loaded into the Now that you understand the basics, let’s get to work. and can be used to
help recover data in
computer’s main storage or RAM. The first thing you’ll need to do is choose your distro of Linux
a pinch.
GPT, which stands for GUID Partition Table, is similar in that you want to install. For this tutorial, we’re using Ubuntu
function to MBR in that it stores partition information for the 16.04. The most important thing you will need to start is a
hard drive. This information includes where the partition starts copy of Ubuntu live CD on a USB flash drive or compact disc.
and ends so that the OS knows which sectors belong to which You can download your preferred version of Ubuntu from its
partition and which ones are bootable. MBR, which was first website at www.ubuntu.com/download. Here you can
introduced back in 1983, can only handle drives that are up to download an ISO file that you can use to create a DVD or
2 terabytes in size and can support up to four partitions per bootable USB flash drive. We recommend creating a bootable
drive. GPT is a newer standard that has been gradually flash drive as it’s more versatile than a DVD, especially with
replacing MBR and handles drives that are far larger and allows optical drives getting phased out of many newer systems to
for a nearly unlimited amount of partitions. If you have Linux save space, weight and power. Once you have a flash drive
the GRUB bootloader, which handles OS booting just like the made you can move on to getting your partitions in order to
Windows boot loader, is often stored in the MBR or GPT. It’s prepare for the installation.
important to note that Windows can only boot a GPT drive on a Of course, now you will only be able to resize the Windows
UEFI-based machine. All current versions of Windows, Linux partition if there’s a decent amount of available space on it, so
and Mac OSX support GPT and it’s generally recommended to make sure you have room before you commit to undertaking
use this scheme on any new installs for the sake of this project. If your computer is running multiple hard drives
compatibility and to avoid issues that MBR might bring. you also have the option of installing Linux on an entirely
There are benefits and drawbacks to either installing different drive, leaving your Windows partition untouched.
Windows or Linux first and every system is different. In this Now before you run out and purchase a brand new hard drive,
guide, we will be taking you through the process having I’ll remind you that the two installations are perfectly capable
Windows installed first. It’s possible to install Ubuntu first, but
there are far fewer issues when having Windows installed first,
as the Linux GRUB bootloader can adapt easily to
accommodate Windows. In contrast, the Windows bootloader
will almost always disregard the presence of another existing
OS, often overwriting the existing bootloader and rendering
the other OS useless until it’s repaired.
It’s important to note that while most of Linux distros are
good at handling dual-boot situations, there’s always room for
something to go wrong. We highly recommend performing a
backup of any existing data to a separate storage device just The diskpart tool allows you to accomplish partitioning and storage tasks with
in case the worst happens. Any files, settings or applications a command line interface for more advanced users and those who might wish
can be backed up in a variety of ways that will allow you to for more custom settings.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 55

 Doing more

of running in harmony on different partitions of the same install to exist alongside the existing Windows installation.
physical drive. Don’t try to overwrite it, because that would be disastrous.
This step will involve you as the user deciding how much
Partitioning methods space to allocate for your Linux installation. You’ve already set
There are a few ways to handle partitioning, so I’ll explain the aside space for the Ubuntu installation in Windows Disk
one that assumes you have Windows already installed. If you Management, but you also have the option to use more or
already have Windows installed, the easiest method is to just less space depending on how you want to do things. In
use the diskpart utility built into Windows to help with this Ubuntu, there are two ways to install alongside Windows.
process. Every drive is different, and it’s likely you’ll have First, there’s an option labelled ‘Install Ubuntu alongside
multiple partitions already existing on the hard drive, such as Windows’ which will handle everything for you. Some other
recovery, OEM and primary etc. Be careful resizing or deleting Linux distros, such as those using Calamares installer, offer
these partitions as messing with the wrong one will lead to similar options to simplify the process. Otherwise, you can
major issues. Usually, the partition labelled ‘Primary’ is the also make and resize partitions using the installer. If you
largest and is where most of your files and data are held. Any choose this route, you can select ‘Something Else’ when
partitions labelled ‘System’ or ‘OEM’ should not be modified prompted for installation type. You can resize the partitions
at all, as those hold Windows system files and cannot be based on your needs and use case. If you’re mainly using
changed, lest you risk the entire system being corrupted. The Linux to experiment, you may not need as much space as if
Primary partition could be resized to give you space for your you were, for example, heavily invested in Linux gaming or
Linux installation. The easy way to do this is to go into the dealing with other large amounts of data. Make sure that the
Disk Management application, find your drive with the boot loader remains the Windows Boot Manager.
primary Windows installation, right-click the partition and The installation process itself will vary depending on the
select ‘Shrink Volume’. After that, just follow the onscreen Linux distro that you want to use. For Ubuntu, the process is a
instructions and you’re good to go. Now you’ll see a section of fairly simple step-by-step walkthrough. You can choose to
Quick the drive with a black bar above it labelled as ‘Unallocated’. install updates during the installation, however, you can skip
tip This is where your shiny new Linux installation will go. this if you have a poor internet connection or just want to
Alternatively, if you’re feeling brave you can lose any partition install them later. At the very end, you’ll be asked to restart.
When backing
up your data, named ‘Recovery’ and install there. However, make sure you At this point, you’re done and can start using your Ubuntu
make sure your know what you’re getting yourself into when you do this. Install. Switching between OSes would involve a simple
backup storage is Now, you can restart and boot from a USB or disk into the reboot. When booting you’ll be given the option to load either
separate, reliable, Ubuntu live CD by holding down the Shift key while rebooting. Windows or Ubuntu, usually with a default option that will
and spacious.
On booting, hit the appropriate function key to load the boot automatically boot after several seconds. If you’re not
By keeping it
physically separate menu, where you can select which device to boot from. Find receiving these options, try some basic troubleshooting by
from the main your flash drive and hit Enter to commence the boot process. retracing your steps.
device, and making You’ll be loaded into the Ubuntu live CD environment with its Sometimes you may find that you need to remove the
sure it is reliable
basic feature set. Here, you can start the installation process. Linux install for whatever reason. Remember, when removing
and spacious
enough to hold all Now follow the onscreen instructions to install Ubuntu. Linux from the dual-boot process you must be very careful so
of your data, you Make sure to choose options that would allow for the Ubuntu as not to break your bootloader and, in turn, create a massive
will reduce potential
issues with the
backup failing.

The shrink
volume dialog
box in Disk
Management
allows you to
shrink a partition
size, and also
warns you if your
desired shrinkage
is too small.

56 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

If it isn’t installed then you can try to install through a few

simple terminal commands that you can type one by one:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install boot-repair
Next, simply boot-repair and click the ‘Recommended
Repair’ option.
Last, to remove the Ubuntu partitions you’ll need to head
back into Windows, reboot and boot into Windows and open
Disk Management by searching for it in the Windows menu.
In disk management, right click the Ubuntu partitions and
select ‘Delete’. This is the point of no return so make sure
you’re good to go before you click that button. If you plan to
just keep using Windows then right click the Windows
partition and select ‘Extend Volume’. This will increase the size
of the Windows partition to fill up the free space. That should
The manual partitioning tool in the Ubuntu installer is
be all that is needed to restore the machine to using only one
similar to many partitioning GUI tools.
operating system.
headache which can possibly go as far as rendering the Now that you know how to add and remove operating
Windows install unusable. systems to and from a computer in a dual-boot situation,
you are ready to tackle your own project with other distros
Removing Linux and combinations. As a final note, there’s also the possibility
To start, you’ll need your Windows installation or recovery CD of adding more OSes to your boot sequence, creating triple-
or an Ubuntu live DVD. To remove the GRUB bootloader, open boot or multi-boot systems. Adding systems essentially
the command prompt from the installation or recovery media follows the same basic steps of partitioning and adding as
environment. Next, type: space allows to the hard drive. With more operating systems
> bootrec /fixmbr comes more versatility and using the bootloader to your
Reboot and boot into Windows. Then move onto using the advantage can allow you to truly make your computer your
Ubuntu live CD. Boot from the CD and choose Boot-Repair. own and design an environment suited to your needs.

The Ubuntu
live environment
allows you to
try Ubuntu right
off of the disc,
so you can use
it to test some
features and
prepare your
machine before
writing anything
to disk.

Re-ordering the Boot Manager

You’ll notice that when you boot from a EFI Boot Manager with the following: Boot0005 Hard Drive
shutdown state there’s a certain order to things. $ sudo apt-get install efibootmgr Boot0006 CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
The Windows operating system or the Linux one Next use the following command to find out To change the boot order, we will have to use
will be given priority and unless you press keys the current boot order situation: the numerical codes which correspond to the
during startup you’ll end up automatically $ sudo efibootmgr . boot device that we want first. For example,
booting into one system or the other, whether You’ll get an output that looks something like in this case we want the system to try to boot
you wanted to or not. this, with the boot order listed: from CD first, followed by Ubuntu and Windows.
This is a common issue that’s easily remedied. BootOrder: 0004,0001,0002,0005 So, we will use the following command to
You can use the EFI Boot Manager tool that you Boot0001 Windows Boot Manager change the boot sequence:
can access from an Ubuntu Live CD. Once in the Boot0002 Network $ sudo efibootngr –o 0006, 0004, 0001
Live CD environment open a terminal and install Boot0004 ubuntu That’s it, you’re now ready to go.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 57

 Doing more

Wine: Windows
plays on Linux
Moving to Linux doesn’t mean totally abandoning Windows, there is still a way
to run some Windows programs right within Ubuntu.

Here’s the
Windows version
of Picasa running
under Ubuntu.

U
buntu does provide everything a happy and free support and Wine offered the best way to enjoy Windows
computer user should need, but being pragmatic gaming without Windows. At the end of 2012 Valve Software
sometimes it’s not possible to totally cut ties with started offering Linux support for its Steam platform and
every Windows programs. For those programs that you still today a large number for indie and big-name games are
need there is a system called Wine – Wine Is Not an Emulator available directly for Linux through Steam, GoG.com and
– that can attempt to provide an in-Ubuntu solution. other services. But for older games and applications Wine is
What it is and what it isn’t: Wine is a compatibility layer, still entirely relevant.
that’s to say it inserts itself between Ubuntu and the Windows
program making that program think it’s still running under Start Wining
Windows. As it says it’s not an emulator, in many ways an The way Wine works can be a little confusing, but Wine isn’t
emulator like VirtualBox might do a better job, but takes more something that runs in the background. You use it to run your
resources to work. Being a compatibility layer means Wine Windows EXE files, this includes their original install files.
works with varying levels of success. Wine then sits as this “compatibility layer” between the
If there’s a specific program you want to try to run with Windows program and the strange, alien landscape of
Wine it’s advisable to first look at the Wine application Ubuntu. This layer is pretty comprehensive but largely
database https://appdb.winehq.org this ranks compatibility invisible, the most visibly obvious aspect of this is that Wine
using Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Junk statuses. While recreates the standard Windows file structure (the C: drive,
there will also be a detailed outline of what does and does not Program files folder, Windows folder etc) within its own Linux
work. Anything ranked Bronze or Junk is highly likely not to be Ubuntu folder.
worth trying. This is for multiple reasons, not least this is how programs
You’ll notice that a lot of the entries are for games. Up until will expect things to be placed, but also the Linux and
the end of 2012 Linux was very poorly serviced with gaming Windows file systems are incompatible. To start, Windows is

58 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Wine - get started

1 Install Wine 2 Ignore the GUI

Open the Ubuntu Software program (it should be in the dock) and You can nose around the Wine GUI, but at this point there’s nothing
search for Wine. Oddly it’s called Configure Wine, select this and click you need change. It’s useful to note that you’re able to map more
Install. Installation can take a while, but once it has completed before Ubuntu drives to standard Windows drives letters – ie add a D drive –
you do anything launch Wine. This enables Wine to do its initial through its Drives tab. Instead we’re going to download a standard
configuration, such as building the base Windows folder system. Windows program, Notepad++ and install it.

3 Install Notepad++ 4 Run Notepad++

Grab this from a reputable download site like www.filehippo.com/ You’re able to place Windows icons on the desktop – if you choose –
download_notepad save the install EXE to your desktop or Download and Wine is able to ensure they work correctly. Once the install has
folder. Once finished locate the file and right-click on it then select finished all that’s left is to double click the desktop icon. Otherwise you
Open in Wine. Wine needs to handle the installation so it can set up the can locate the program through the Dash Search. More technically
charade that Notepad++ thinks it’s in Windows land. files are stored under the standard ~/.wine folder.

case insensitive that’s to say a program called “HELLO” looks Windows programs. But why wouldn’t you install this over
the same as one called “hello”, under Linux they are treated Wine? First it requires Wine anyway and secondly it only
as two entirely different files. Another oddity is under supports a limited number of programs that are known to
Windows folders are distinguished with a backslash \ under work well.
Linux it’s a forward slash /. The commercial arm of Wine is a product called
These are more things to be aware of rather than worry CrossOver available from www.codeweavers.com it’s aimed
about as for the basic use we’re covering it shouldn’t be an at businesses and provides a dedicated support service for
issue. Occasionally though when locating files from within running Windows programs on Linux.
Ubuntu, Wine and other Windows programs it’s useful to be Another option to keep in mind is that the version of Wine
aware of this. maintained by Ubuntu is v1.6, the latest stable release is
We’ve created a basic walkthrough that shows you how to actually v1.8.x. It’s worth reading the release notes to see if
install and run a standard Windows tool onto Ubuntu and that improves compatibility for games or programs you want
then run it. We’re using Wine at its very basic level, there’s a to use. Getting the latest version is a matter of following a few
whole world of more complex features that can improve basic terminal commands, though ensure you uninstall any
compatibility but it’s beyond this beginner’s guide. Instead we version via the Ubuntu Software tool, if you’ve already done it
can point you in the direction of some pre-build versions and that way. A handy guide can be found at https://wiki.
bolt on paid-for services that try to make Wine work better. winehq.org/Ubuntu.
The first and your first port of call should be www. Really, Wine isn’t the answer, we’d strongly suggest
PlayOnLinux.com this is a front-end to Wine and offers a seeking out native Ubuntu apps rather than continuing with
large list of pre-built and tested configurations for many trying to use a Windows program. We’ve listed a number of
Windows games and programs. The PlayOnLinux system common alternatives on page 34, but thousands more are
makes it very straightforward to install and launch your out there just waiting to be discovered.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 59

 Doing more

Terminal: How
to get started
Flex those fingers and dive head first into the inky darkness of the terminal.
Let us show you how to start handling its mysterious commands.

T
he terminal is an incredibly important part of your emulator – technically it’s emulating a TeleTYpe (TTY)
Quick Linux desktop. It doesn’t matter how wedded you are session. It has all the functionality you’ll need, but both XTerm
tip to point and click over the command line, at some and UXTerm are worth noting because although they are
point you’re going to have to dip your toe in the terminal’s more minimalist tools and neither require any dependencies
If you’re struggling
to type the right dark expanse and use it. Don’t worry, though, because the to run. This means if anything stops the main terminal from
command, you can terminal isn’t as scary as it might appear, and if you take the running, you can use either as a backup. As an aside, the only
wipe all previous time to learn the basics you’ll discover it can be a far quicker difference between the two is that UXTerm supports the
actions from view
and more effective way of getting certain tasks done. expanded Unicode character set.
simply by typing
clear and hitting As you’d expect, a terminal effectively gives you access to
Enter. Note this your Linux shell, which means it works in exactly the same How Bash works
won’t affect your way using the same language (Bash). This means you can do The Linux shell uses the Bash shell and command language
command history. anything in the terminal you’d normally do at the command to perform tasks, and it uses a relatively straightforward
line, all without leaving the relative comfort of your desktop. syntax for each command: utility command -option .
That makes learning how to use the terminal – and Bash – The ‘utility’ portion of the command is the tool you wish
doubly advantageous as it gives you your first glimpse into to run, such as ls for listing the contents of a directory, or
working with the underlying Linux shell. apt-get to trigger the APT package management tool. The
We’re basing this tutorial on Ubuntu, so start by opening command section is where you specify exactly what you
the Dash and typing ‘terminal’ into the search box. You’ll find want the utility to do, eg typing apt-get install instructs the
the terminal of course, but you’ll also see two entries called package management utility to install the named package, eg:
UXTerm and XTerm too. This highlights the fact there are apt-get install vlc .
multiple terminal emulators that you can run in order to The -option section is where one or more ‘flags’ can be
interact with the shell. There are differences between them, of set to specify certain preferences. Each flag is preceded by
course, but fundamentally they do the same thing. one or two dashes (--) and the most useful of all is the --help
For the purposes of this tutorial we’re sticking with the option, which provides a brief description of the utility, plus
default terminal, which is basically the gnome-terminal lists all available commands and options, eg ls -l .

Speed up text entry

It doesn’t matter how fleet of hand your typing skills are, the
command line can still be a time-consuming, frustrating
experience. Thankfully the terminal comes equipped with
lots of handy time-saving shortcuts. This issue let’s take a
look at how you can easily access previously used
commands and view suggestions:
Up/down arrows Browse your command history.
history Use this to view your command history
Ctrl+r Search command history. Type letters to narrow
down search, with the most recent match displayed, and
keep pressing Ctrl+r to view other matches.
Tab View suggestions or auto-complete a word or path if
only one suggestion exists. Press ~+Tab to autofill your
username, @+Tab to autofill your host name and $+Tab to
The --help flag can be used with any command to find out what it does, plus
autofill a variable.
what arguments to use.

60 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Your first terminal commands

While it’s possible to install and manage software using a
combination of the Software Center and Ubuntu’s Software
& Updates setting panel, it’s often quicker to make use of the
Advanced Package Tool (APT) family of tools. Here’s some
key ways that they can be used (see sudo use below):
$ apt-cache pkgnames Lists all available packages from
sources listed in the /etc/apt/sources.list file.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:<repository name> Adds a
specific Launchpad PPA repository to the sources list.
$ sudo apt-get update Gets the latest package lists
(including updated versions) from all listed repositories.
$ sudo apt-get install <package> Installs all the named
package. This will also download and install any required
dependencies for the packages.
$ apt-get remove <package> Use this to remove an
installed package. Use apt-get purge <package> to also
remove all its configuration files, and apt-get autoremove to
remove packages installed by other packages that are no
longer needed.
$ sudo apt-get upgrade Upgrades all installed software –
run sudo apt-get update before running this. Other useful
apt-get commands include apt-get check a diagnostic tool
that checks for broken dependencies, apt-get autoclean , The apt-cache package can also be used to search for specific packages or
which removes Deb files from removed packages. reveal a package’s dependencies.

The -l flag tells the list directory tool to provide detailed su command if supported) and type sudo adduser
information about the contents of the folder it’s listing, <username> sudo . You can also add the user to other groups
including: permissions; who owns the file; the date it was last with the command by listing all the groups you wish to add,
modified; and its size in bytes. Utilities can be run without any eg: sudo adduser <username> adm sudo lpadmin
commands or options – eg ls on its own provides a basic list sambashare .
of all folders and files in a directory. You can also run utilities Another handy tool is gksudo, which allows you to launch
with a combination of commands and/or options. desktop applications with root privileges. It’s of most use
when wanting to use the file manager to browse your system
Restricted access with root access: gksudo nautilus . Make sure you leave the
Open the terminal and you’ll see something like this appear: terminal open while the application is running, otherwise it’ll
username@pc-name:~$ . This indicates that you’re logged on close when the terminal does. When you’re done, close the
to the shell as your own user account. This means that you application window, then press Ctrl+c in the terminal, which
have access to a limited number of commands – you can run interrupts the currently running program and returns you to
ls directly, eg, but not to install a package using apt-get , the command line.
because the command in question requires root access. This We’ve already discussed the --help flag, but there are
is achieved one of two ways – if you’re an administrative user, other help-related tools you can use too. First, there’s
as the default user in Ubuntu is, then you can precede your whatis – which you can type with any command to get a
command with the sudo command, eg sudo apt-get install brief description of it and any specified elements, eg whatis
vlc . You’ll be prompted for your account password, and then apt-get install vlc will describe the apt-get tool, the install
the command will run. You should find that you can run more argument and what package vlc is. Flags are ignored.
sudo -based commands without being re-prompted for your If you’re looking for a full-blown manual, then the man
password (for five minutes) while the terminal is open. On tool provides access to your distro’s online reference manual,
some distros you can log on to the terminal as the root user which is started with man intro . This provides you with a
with su – you’ll be prompted for the root password at which long and detailed intro to the command line. Once done
point you’ll see the following prompt: root@pc-name:~$ . press q to quit back to the terminal. For more advice on
Once logged in, you can enter commands with no navigating the manual, type man man or pair it with a tool,
restrictions. We recommend you use the sudo command eg man ls .
rather than this approach and if you’re running Ubuntu then Now you’ve taken your first steps into the world of the
you’ll find su won’t work because the root account terminal, check out the box (Your First Terminal Commands,
password is locked for security reasons. above) for some useful package management commands
When installing some distros or adding new users to you can work with. Next, we’ll look at how to navigate your
Ubuntu, you may find your user account isn’t added to the filesystem from the terminal, plus launch programs and delve
sudo group by default. To resolve this, you need to open the into more useful shortcuts to help speed up the way you
terminal in an account that does have root access (or use the interact with the command line.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 61

 Doing more

Terminal:
Work with files
Time to turn our attention to navigating your file system and
manipulating files and folders from the beloved Terminal.

P
reviously we introduced you to the basics of using
the Terminal. We opened by revealing it works in the
same way as your Linux shell; how commands are
structured (utility command -option); plus gave you the tools
to manage software packages and get further help. This time,
we’re going to look at how you can navigate your file system,
work with files and folders and learn some more time-saving
shortcuts in the bargain.
When you open a new Terminal window, the command
prompt automatically places you in your own personal home
folder. You can verify this using the ls command, which lists
the contents of the current folder. The default Terminal
application displays folder names in blue, and filenames in Make good use of ‘ and \ characters when folder paths
white, helping you differentiate between them. The ls contain spaces and other special characters.
command can be used in other ways too. Start by typing ls -a
to display all files, including those that begin with a period the folder begins with a capital letter – as your personal
mark ( . ), which are normally hidden from view. Then try ls Documents folder does, eg – you’ll get an error about the
--recursive , the --recursive option basically means that the folder not existing if you type it all in lower case, eg, cd
contents of sub-folders are also displayed. documents . You can also move down several levels at once
If you want more detail about the folder’s contents – using the following syntax: cd subfolder/subfolder2 . To move
permissions settings, user and group owners, plus file size (in back up to the previous level, use cd .. , you can also use the
bytes) and date last modified, use ls -l . If you’d prefer to list / character to move up multiple levels at once, eg cd ../..
file sizes in kilobytes, megabytes or even gigabytes depending moves up two levels.
on their size, add the -h option—so use lh -h -l instead. What if you want to go somewhere completely different?
There are many more options for ls and you can use the Use cd / to place yourself in the root directory, or navigate
--help option to list them all. anywhere on your system by entering the exact path,
Navigating your file system is done using the cd including that preceding / character to indicate you’re
command – to move down one level to a sub-folder that’s navigating from the top level, eg cd /media/username .
inside the current directory use cd <subfolder> , replacing The ~ character works in a similar way to / , except this
<subfolder> with the name of the folder you wish to access. places you in your home directory. So typing cd ~/
Remember that folder and filenames are case sensitive, so if Documents is the same as typing cd /home/username/

Speedier navigation
In last part we revealed some handy keyboard between arguments. command with sudo applied to it. And if you
shortcuts to help you enter commands more Ctrl+u Clear the entire line to start again. make a typo when entering a command, instead
quickly, but the following keys will help you Ctrl+k Delete everything from the cursor’s of retyping the entire command again, just use the
navigate the Terminal itself more efficiently: position onwards. following syntax to correct the mistyped word (in
Home/End Press these to jump to the Ctrl+w Delete the word before the cursor. the following example, dpkg was originally
beginning or end of the current line. Accidentally omitted sudo from your command? mistyped as dkpg):
Ctrl+left/right cursor Move quickly Just type sudo !! and hit Enter to repeat the last ^dkpg^dpkg

62 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Boost your learning

Now you’re starting to flex your muscles in nano ~/.bashrc Press [Ctrl]+[o] to save the file (just hit Enter to
Terminal, how about expanding your knowledge This opens the file in the nano text editor. Use overwrite it), then [Ctrl]+[x] to exit nano. Now
by instructing it to display information about a the cursor keys to scroll down to the bottom of close the Terminal window and open a new one to
random command each time you open it? To do the file, then add the following line to it: get a brief description of a command. Just type
this, you need to edit a file, so open the Terminal echo “Did you know that:”; whatis $(ls /bin | the following, with the actual command listed for
and type the following: shuf -n 1) a longer description: <command> --help .

Documents . One final trick —you’ve jumped to another ( * ) character can be used to quickly access a folder with a Quick
directory, but how do you go back to the previous directory long name, eg cd Doc* .
quickly? Simple, just type cd - to do so. This works fine if there’s only one folder beginning with
tip
Doc, but if there are two (say Doctor and Documents), then Some file managers

Working with files and folders the command would open the first matching folder, which is
allow you to
right-click a folder
You can now list directories and navigate your file system, Doctor in this instance. To avoid this, use cd Doc*ts instead and open the
but what about doing something practical, like moving and (unless you have a folder called Documents and Doctorists). Terminal at that
copying files? You’ll find a range of different commands exist, Two characters that are more useful when navigating are location, but you
have to manually
and the tricks you’ve learned about navigation will hold you in the single quotation mark ( ‘ ) and backslash ( \ ) characters.
add this option to
good stead here too. Use single quotation marks around files or file paths that Ubuntu’s Nautilus
Let’s start by looking at commands for copying ( cp ) and contain spaces, such as cd ~\Documents\Doctor Who . file manager.
moving ( mv ) files and folders. The same options apply to You should also use quotation marks when creating Install nautilus-
both commands. The basic syntax is cp/mv <source> folders in this way, eg simply typing mkdir Doctor Who will open-terminal
from the Software
<target>. The source and target can be complete paths actually create two separate folders called Doctor and Who, Center, then open
following the same rules for the cd command, but it’s so type mkdir ‘Doctor Who’ to get the folder you want. a Terminal window,
generally good practice to first navigate to the folder You can also use the \ character to get around this too, eg type nautilus -q
containing the file or folder you wish to copy or move. Once mkdir Doctor\ Who works in the same way, because the \ and press Enter.
The option will
done, you can simply specify the file or folder name as the character instructs mkdir to treat the following character (in
now appear.
source, like so cp invoice.odt ~/Documents/Backup . this instance the space) as ‘special’.
This creates a copy of the file with the same name. We finish off by revealing some handy characters that
The following copies the file to the specified directory and allow you to run multiple commands on a single line. The &&
renames it too: cp invoice.odt ~/Documents/Backup/invoice- argument does just that, so you can do the following to
backup.odt . If you want to create a copy of the file within the quickly update your repos and update all available software:
same file, simply use cp invoice.odt invoice-backup.odt . sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Substitute mv for cp in any of the above commands, && is like the AND command in that the second
and the file is moved, moved and renamed or simply command will only be performed if the first completes
renamed. What happens if there’s already a file called successfully. If you wanted the second command to only run
invoice-backup.odt in existence? It’ll be overwritten without if the first command failed then you’d use || instead. If you
as much as a by your leave, so make sure you’re asked if you want the second command to run after the first regardless of
want to overwrite it by adding the -i flag like this mv -i what happens, then use the ; eg,
invoice.odt invoice-backup.odt . sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get remove appname
You can also copy folders using the cp or mv instead: of && .
commands. Here, you need to include the recursive option,
which ensures the folder is copied across with all its contents
and correctly arranged in their original locations relative to
the parent folder: cp -r ~/Documents /mnt/sdb1/Backup/ .
If the Backup folder exists, then the Documents folder
will be recreated inside it; if not, then the Backup folder is
created and the contents of the Documents folder are copied
into it instead.
Use the rm command to delete a single file, eg rm
invoice.odt . The rmdir command deletes folders, but only
empty ones. If you want to delete a folder and all its contents,
use the command rm -r foldername .
You can also create new folders with mkdir command –
simply type mkdir folder, replacing folder with your chosen
folder name. Use the touch command to create an empty
file, such as touch config.sys .
Wildcards are often used to speed things up in searches,
and can also be applied to file commands too – the asterisk Use ls to find out more about the files and folders in a current directory.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 63

 Doing more

Scan and print:

How to start
Let’s run through some tips to get your printers and scanners up and running
using systems and tools such as CUPS, SANE and XSANE.

T
hese days, it’s almost mandatory to have a printer Once installed, Click the ‘Add’ button to see if your printer
and scanner attached to your PC, but getting them is visible and supported. If your printer is connected via USB,
set up in Linux can be a little tricky. Don’t worry, but not showing up – as is likely – then you’ll first need to
though, because armed with the right drivers and tools locate suitable drivers for it. Start by looking for Linux drivers
you can quickly get things up and running. There are two on your manufacturer’s website and for your particular distro
core tools built into most Linux distributions (distros) that (you may need to find a unified package). Hopefully your
help simplify the process: CUPS for printers and SANE for exact distro (including version number) will be supported,
scanners. CUPS provides a centralised management tool for but don’t panic if it’s not; we successfully installed a Dell
adding and configuring your printers while SANE allows you B1265dnf all-in-one printer in Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS using a
to interface with your scanner in much the same way, as unified package that only promised support up to 11.04.
well as providing the tools you need to preview and scan If you’re lucky, the driver may be supplied in a Deb
images. We’ll be focussing on these for this tutorial, coupled package, in which case downloading and double-clicking it
with some useful tools that mean you don’t need to go into should launch the setup wizard. If your driver is provided as a
the terminal should you need to access or tweak them. tarball (with a .tar.gz extension), then it’ll probably contain a
With other operating systems, you can usually plug and shell script (.sh) installer, in which case follow the step-by-
play your printer or scanner – the drivers will either already step guide opposite to discover how to get it up and running.
be pre-installed or you’ll be prompted to download a driver, Once done, re-open the CUPS front-end under System
or insert a manufacturer’s disc. While it’s not quite that Settings and your new printer should be visible.
simple in Linux, the fact is that armed with the right
procedure you shouldn’t have to spend hours getting things Network setup
set up. If you’re adding a networked printer, then you should be able
The good news is that you don’t need to start your search to spot it without having to first source drivers. Click ‘Add’,
at your manufacturer’s website when installing your printer. expand ‘Network Printer’ and wait or click ‘Find Network
If you’re lucky, you may find the drivers are already in place, Printer’. After a short pause any detected printers should
particularly if your model is a network one, in which case all show up. Select yours and you’ll see a choice of connection
you need to do is open the CUPS front-end and see if it can protocols appear. (See What Connection Type? box, over the
detect your printer. page for details of which one to choose if you’re given the
Network
CUPS should be pre-installed with later versions of option.) Select IPP if it’s available, otherwise choose LPD or
printers can
Ubuntu – including 16.04 LTS – and you can access it from visit your manufacturer’s website to see if it provides a driver
often be set up
even without System Settings by clicking ‘Printers’. If it’s not there, install it that will likely offer an IPP connection if you install it.
drivers thanks through the Software Centre (search for ‘printer’ and select If you’re happy to proceed with the options offered by
to CUPS. Printers) or via the terminal using sudo apt-get install cups . CUPS, click ‘Forward’ and it’ll look for drivers, selecting them
automatically if available. If it can’t find any you’ll be given
three choices: select from database, provide a PPD file or
search for a driver to download. Start by selecting your
printer manufacturer to see if an exact match is available.
If not, try a search – again, you may want to expand your
search to your web browser, as it’s limited in scope.
You can also use a PostScript Printer Description (PPD)
file if your printer is a PostScript model and you can source
one (search for your printer name and model and the word
‘PPD’). This provides CUPS with a description of its
capabilities, which it can use when outputting files.
If all else fails, don’t worry: choose ‘Select printer from
database’ again, but this time select ‘Generic
(recommended)’ and click ‘Forward’. A generic PCL driver will

64 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Policy’ if supported and required (if you go down this route,

access the printer via the CUPS web interface to set things
up and running).
Access Control allows you to deny (or allow) access to the
printer on a user level. You should spend some time in both
Printer Options and Job Options tab where you configure key
printer defaults. Printer Options is mainly concerned with
default quality and paper settings, while Job Options lets you
configure things like the number of copies, page orientation,
and individual elements such as text and images.
Once installed, administer your printers using the
Finally, if your printer allows it, the Ink/Toner Levels
Printers tool under System Settings. provides a handy glance at your printer’s core components,
including elements like the fuser.
Now your printer is set up, it’s time to use it. Open an Quick
be pre-selected, so try this first: either the pxlmono or application and when you’re ready, choose File > Print. tip
pxlcolor option depending on whether your printer is mono Your printer should be listed, so it’s simply a case of
Struggling to get
or colour. Click ‘Forward’ to install it – in most cases this will tweaking whatever options are made available to you in the your printer to
provide all the core functionality you need. application’s own dialog and clicking ‘Print’. If you have more function correctly?
Whichever route you go down when adding your printer, than one printer installed, the default one will always be pre- Visit http://
openprinting.
you’ll be prompted to provide a name, description and selected; change this via the System Settings > Printers
org/printers and
location for it, then asked to print a test page – we dialog by right-clicking your target printer and choosing see if your model
recommend this to verify the connection is working. Once ‘Set as default’. is covered. If it is,
done, you’ll be taken to the printer’s configuration screen, In most cases, the CUPS tool provided under System scroll down to the
where you can examine its settings and see what control you Settings should have all the options you need, but CUPS can comments to see
if anyone else can
can wield over it. also be administered from your browser: type localhost:631
help (or post your
to access it. There’s a handy overview and links to the CUPS own question in
Tweak printer settings forum should you need it, but use the tabs at the top of the the forums).
The main Settings tab allows you to change your printer’s page to navigate the web-based utility. Go to Printers and
description and location, plus change its URL. If you click click your printer to access its settings – here, navigation is
‘Change…’ next to ‘Device URI’ you can attempt to connect done through a series of drop-down menus. If you’ve
using a different protocol. This is also where you’ll find installed a dedicated driver and were asked to assign a user
options for printing test pages and maintaining the printer. to it, you’ll be prompted at this point to enter the username
The Policies tab allows you to change the printer’s state in and password to access the required pages.
terms of whether it’s enabled, accepting jobs or shared. If you’ve set up a network-connected printer, you should
You can also define what happens if the printer encounters also be able to access machine-level settings directly by
an error and switch on authentication for its ‘Operation typing in its IP address. If you don’t know its IP address, it’s

Install a printer driver tarball package

1 Obtain & extract installer 2 Start installation 3 Follow install guide

Browse to your manufacturer’s website and Now you’ll need to open up a terminal window You’ll need to work your way through the
locate the required driver for your Linux distro, and type in cd <path> . You’ll need to replace installer wizard and make sure that you tick
which may be packaged as a unified driver. <path> with the path listed under Location for your username to allow you to access the
Save the gar.tz file to your Downloads folder, the install.sh file that’s found in its Properties printer. Once the wizard’s complete, you may
then right-click it and choose ‘Extract Here’. window. Now you’ll need to type the following then be prompted to configure the printer for
Once that’s done, open the extracted folder command and press Enter, followed by your CUPS and need to follow its wizard to set it up,
and locate a file called install.sh. root password when prompted: sudo sh entering name, description and location, if
Right-click it and choose ‘Properties’ to make install.sh . After a short pause you should see required, before going ahead and testing the
a note of its location. an installer wizard pop up. printer to finish the process off.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 65

 Doing more

Some printers
ship with their
own utilities,
which may
provide you with
more control over
its settings.

The success – or failure – of OCR is largely down to the

under the printer’s Settings – click ‘Change’ next to ‘Device quality of the original document.
URI’ and expand Network Printer. The IP address will then be
listed in brackets after your printer name. Enter the URL done, open System Settings > Printers and click the ‘ˇ’
address and you’ll be given access the printer itself, giving button next to Add and select ‘Class’.
you even greater control over how it functions and who has You’ll be prompted to provide a name, description and
access to it and when (eg setting up duplex options for location in terms of a single printer, but it’s better to think in
double-sided printing). terms of the class, eg, ‘study-printers’ or something similar.
Once done, click ‘Forward’ and you’ll be prompted to add

Quick
Printer classes existing printers to the class – remember to add them in
CUPS allows you to group multiple printers into classes. This order of preference. Once done, click ‘Apply’. Once created,
tip is mainly aimed at networks where lots of users want to you can set this class as your default in place of a single
If you’re trying to share a limited number of printers. Each class has a printer – just right-click its entry and choose ‘Set As Default’.
extract text from hierarchy with those printers added first being preferred to Linux also offers good built-in tools to help you access
a multi-columned
those added later. When people come to print using a class, and make use of your scanner. In many cases – particularly
document, make
sure you use YAGF’s they’re allocated a printer based on availability, so if one with newer models – you can simply plug it in and there’s a
tools for correcting person is printing they’ll always get access to the first printer, good chance it’ll work. That’s due in part to built-in support
page skew and while if two are printing at the same time, the first person for SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy), which provides all the
selecting multiple gets the preferred printer and the second gets the next back-ends to scanning in Linux.
columns before you
available one. To see if you’re lucky, plug in your scanner to a spare USB
attempt recognition
to maximise your With this in mind, it definitely pays to work out how you port and fire up Simple Scan to see if it detects it. If it does,
chances of having want your printers classed: do you want the faster ones you’re in business – skip to the next section; if it doesn’t –
a successful made available first, or are you looking to try and steer don’t panic. First, check for Linux drivers with your
extraction.
people towards a high-volume printer such as a laser? Once manufacturer. Follow the instructions to download and install

What connection type?

If you’re hooking up a network printer, then you’ll have been
given a choice of connections when setting your printer up.
But what are the different protocols and which one should
you choose if given the choice?
The simplest protocol is AppSocket (also referred to as
HP JetDirect). It’s usually used when no other connection is
possible, but its simplicity also means it lacks any kind of
fine control: eg there’s no queue management so you can’t
abort print jobs once they’ve been sent. There’s also no way
to find out the printer’s status, making it impossible to
discover ink and toner levels, eg.
Next up is LPD, which stands for Line Printer Daemon
(also known as LPR, or Line Printer Remote). This does
implement queue management, and can tell the difference
between different types of data, such as raw text or
PostScript information. There’s neither support for remote
setup nor management, though, and you can’t query the ink
or toner (although these may be provided anyway) and your
print jobs can’t be encrypted.
The final protocol – IPP – is the most contemporary and
functional. It stands for ‘Internet Printing Protocol’ and is
what CUPS uses as the basis for managing both print jobs
and queues. It’s the preferred method of communication as
you get more feedback from the printer and wield more Select your protocol carefully when configuring your network printer using
control over it thanks to its bidirectional nature. CUPS, we’d suggest that IPP is the best if it’s supported.

66 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Get unsupported scanners working

If, after your best efforts, you’re still unable to get launch the program proper. It should detect your downside is that it’s not free – the Standard
your scanner set up using SANE, then take a trip scanner automatically, then provide you with a Edition costs $39.95, while the more fully
to www.hamrick.com where you’ll find a simple step-by-step wizard to preview and scan featured Pro Edition costs $89.95 (you can
program called VueScan, which promises to using the program. upgrade from Standard to Pro for the difference
support over 2,500 scanners. VueScan provides a lot of useful tools to help at any time, too). The good news is that VueScan
Click the supported scanners link to browse you get the perfect scan, and it works with many is fully functional for the purposes of evaluation
by manufacturer – if your model is listed, then scanners that are already supported in Linux (other than a watermark across all your scans),
download the tarball and extract the VueScan too, so if you’re struggling to get to grips with so you can be sure it’s right for you before
folder, then double-click vuescan inside to XSane, consider giving it a whirl. The only making a purchase.

these – again, if they’re provided with an install.sh script, image accordingly. Launch Gimp, choose File > Create >
follow the step-by-step guide to get them installed. XSane to select your scanner or perform a search for
Quick
If your scanner is part of a multi-function device than its available devices. Everything’s handled identically except for tip
drivers should be integrated with the printer’s – if you added one critical part: there’s no output option, so once you click It’s also possible
the printer component of a MFP without installing specific ‘Scan’ the image will automatically be transferred to Gimp. to use CUPS to
‘print’ documents
drivers, then you’ll need to source and install these to get the XSane also links in with the goocr tool to a built-in Optical
to PDF file where
scanner up and running. If you’ve installed drivers previously, Character Recognition (OCR) engine. This allows you to scan no native PDF
but the scanner isn’t detected, try installing them again over in printed documents and convert them into editable text. option is provided.
the top of the original drivers – we found this worked with It’s a flexible solution, but if you want to try something else Install cups-pdf
our Dell B1265dnf after the scanner failed to show up. Once then install both cuneiform and YAGF from the Ubuntu from the Ubuntu
Software Center –
installed, your drivers may provide their own utility to help Software Center. Cuneiform is an alternative OCR engine once done, a new
you verify the scanner is now recognised – eg Dell users while YAGF provides a neat front-end to both cuneiform and PDF printer will
should see a DELL Unified Driver Configurator shortcut on tesseract and is an OCR engine that’s renowned for its appear as an option
the desktop – or you’ll need to fire up Simple Scan again at accuracy. YAGF integrates nicely with XSane too – launch when printing.
which point your scanner should now be visible. YAGF, click the ‘Scan’ button and it’ll open XSane. Set the
For more troubleshooting advice on using SANE to detect colour to ‘Black and White – Line Art’ and set the dpi to 600.
your scanner, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ Click ‘Scan’ and the document will be scanned and sent back
Scanners or take a look at the box on VueScan. to YAGF. From here, review the scan quality, then use the
As we’ve seen, Ubuntu comes with the Simple Scan controls above the scanned image to prepare it for
front-end for SANE, which provides you with a simple, recognition. Once done, click the red ‘OCR’ button next to the
no-frills interface for your scanner. It’s good for confirming language drop-down menu. YAGF will use Tesseract by
your scanner works, but it lacks key tools like a preview default to decode the page, with the editable text placed in
function or the ability to fine-tune your scanner’s settings. the right-hand pane for you to review and correct. Don’t like
the results? Choose Settings > OCR Settings, select
Time to scan cuneiform and click OK, then try that instead – in our tests,
However, if you really want to push the boat out, open the Tesseract performed better, but not by much. Be prepared to
Ubuntu Software Center and search for ‘xsane’ to locate and try and fine-tune the original scan if necessary to make the
install XSane, a more powerful scanning front-end. Once text as clear and legible as possible.
launched it’ll display four windows – start by clicking ‘Acquire Once you’re done reviewing and editing the text, you can
preview’ to create a preview of the image you’re trying to save it as a TXT file or copy it to the clipboard, ready for
scan. Once done, use the Standard Options window to select pasting into Writer or another editing program.
your image – choose ‘Custom’ under Page Format and then Congratulations, your scanner is now set up to perform
crop in using the four measurements beneath it. both standard and text-based scans.
Next, click the 1:1 magnifying glass button in the main
window to zoom into the preview. Use the eyedropper tools
to select white, black and grey parts of the image for colour
correction purposes, then use the histogram’s sliders in the
top left-hand window to fine tune the colour balance. The
right-hand window is where you choose where to save the
file, what format to use and so on – choose 16 million (this is
24-bit) colours for photos and ensure the scan resolution is
increased from 75dpi to 300dpi or 600dpi if you want a
hi-res scan. There are also controls for adjusting brightness,
contrast and gamma.
By default, your scan will open in XSane’s Viewer window
when you click ‘Scan’ – it’s a good idea to perform one scan
like this, so you can review your image and perform further
optimisation. Once you’re happy with your changes, click
‘Viewer’ and change it to Save, then click ‘Scan’ one last time.
Another benefit of XSane is that it integrates with Gimp –
this allows you to scan directly to it, and then fine-tune your XSane provides a comprehensive set of scanning tools.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 67

 Doing more

Backup: Don’t
lose your data
Make sure that your most important files are backed up simply and
automatically with Ubuntu’s own backup manager.

A
nyone who has worked in Tech Support will tell you
that the most heartbreaking calls come from people
Quick who have lost data due to a computer error or failure.
tip Ubuntu saves you this trouble by integrating a backup
There are dozens manager into its OS. With a few simple clicks of the mouse
of backup utilities you can have peace of mind that your data is safe.
available for
Ubuntu. Head to
Before proceeding, it’s best to buy an external hard drive
https://help. that you will use exclusively for backing up. While the backup
ubuntu.com/ program Déjà Dup is able to delete older backups in favour of Click “Local Folder” to change where you store your
community/ newer ones to save space, try to get as large a hard drive as backups–external drive and online backups are supported.
BackupYour
possible to avoid losing any important older information.
System to view a
list of these along Remember that backups exist to protect your data from don’t really need to be backed up as you can simply insert
with details of their physical damage like fire and theft, as well as software errors. your DVD again but if you are aware of other folders outside
features. Try to store the hard drive in a separate location to your your home folder where you have stored data, click on the +
computer when you’re not carrying out backups. button at the bottom left to add these to your backups.
If you have more than one user on your computer, while
Backup Basics it’s technically possible to add their home folder here, this can
Quick Click the search bar and type “backups” to launch the Backup cause errors further down the line. Complete this guide and
tip Manager. You will see that Ubuntu asks you to install extra then have them log into their account and do the same from
software to begin using backups. Click Install to proceed. You there. You can use the same hard drive to back up more than
Remember that If will need to enter your password to confirm you wish to install one account provided there’s enough space. Click on Folders
you are unable to
the backup utility Déjà Dup. to Ignore, this section tells the backup manager which folders
restore your data
visit Déjà Dup’s Once this is complete, the Backup Manager will inform not to back up. By default the Downloads folder is excluded
troubleshooting you that you have no backups scheduled and you should as these files tend to be easy to replace.
page at https:// either enable automatic backups or click Backup now. Before If you use a cloud storage provider like Dropbox, you may
wiki.gnome.org/
choosing either, it’s important to fine tune your settings. also want to exclude that folder from the backup as a copy
Apps/DejaDup/
Help/Restore/ First click on Folders to Save on the left hand side of the already exists online as well as on your computer. Click the +
window. By default your Home Folder is selected. This icon once again and select the folder.
contains your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Downloads,
Music and Videos folders and is therefore likely to hold Storage and Scheduling
everything you created yourself. Other files like system files With your folders to save and ignore carefully chosen, click on
Storage Location. If your external USB hard drive or memory
stick isn’t already connected, do so now.
You will see that by default backups are stored in your
home directory in a folder named deja-dup. This is not a
particularly reliable place to back up as if the data on your
hard drive becomes corrupted in future or it suffers a
breakdown, the backup would most likely be affected too.
Click on Local Folder to open the menu and select your
external drive. Click the box besides Folder to specify a name
for a new backup folder on the device e.g Backups1. All future
backups will be stored in there.
Next, click on Scheduling on the left hand side of the
window and click the rocker switch to turn on Automatic
Backups. By default backups are performed weekly but you
Click Install to download the backup utility. Go through the options on the left can change this to once a day if you wish. The Keep setting
before clicking Backup Now to control where, when and how your data is saved. allows you to decide whether to delete old backups after a

68 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

you’ve previously made will be listed in the drop down menu.

If you had to reinstall your system due to a software bug, Quick
make sure to restore from a time where you’re certain your tip
computer wasn’t experiencing any issues and click Forward. Backups made
This takes you to the Restore to Where? window. Usually you through Déjà Dup
will want files to be copied back to their original locations e.g are incremental, in
that it backs up only
your Home folder. However if there is data already inside
those files that have
those folders or you only want to restore some of your changed since the
Check the progress of individual files click the small information, you can choose to restore elsewhere such as a last backup. This
triangle next to details. Click Resume Later if you need to new folder. saves time
log out or shut down the machine for any reason. Finally you will see the summary window asking you to and space.

confirm the backup location, date and destination folder.

certain amount of time e.g after 6 months or only to remove Click Restore to proceed. If the backups are encrypted you’ll
them to make way for newer backups (Forever). also be asked for a password at this stage.

Your first backup Backup Bothers

In the Overview section to apply your changes and run your Although the Backup Manager is very handy, it’s important to
first backup. Click Back up Now to open the backup window. schedule backups and check that they are being run every
At this stage you’ll have the option to choose a password now and then in the Overview section.
to encrypt backups. This is very important in order to protect Déjà Dup has no built in method for recovering encrypted
your data, as otherwise anyone who can access the external backups without a password so be sure to write this down on
drive will see your files. Try to choose a strong password to a piece of paper, as if you keep it on your computer, this may
keep your data safe. If you are stuck for inspiration, you can be lost if there is an error.
easily generate secure passwords via the Diceware Ubuntu’s Backup Manager cannot easily be configured to
Passphrase Home Page (http://world.std.com/~reinhold/ back up an entire computer including all user accounts and
diceware.html). Make sure to write down your password and system data. If you want an exact copy of the entire hard
keep it in a safe place as you’ll need it to restore your data. drive, consider using a different backup utility like CloneZilla
Once the process is complete, the Backup Manager (http://clonezilla.org). There’s also no elegant way to
window will tell you that the last backup was today. You can restore individual files but you can choose to retrieve your
head over to the folder on the external hard drive to view the backup and place it into a new folder on your system. Be sure
files. Inside the folder you will see a file with the extension to delete any superfluous files when you are done to avoid
.manifest and a number of files with the extension tar.gz. Do duplicating data.
not worry if you do not recognise the file names, they have
been compressed in order to save space. The information in
the .manifest file will allow them to be restored if necessary.
Check the
Restoring Backups summary to
If the worst happens and you are forced to reinstall Ubuntu ensure that you
with a blank hard drive, you will need to repeat the steps in are restoring the
correct backup.
Backup Basics to reinstall Déjà Dup on your machine. Make
Here the files
sure to connect your external drive to your computer as well.
will be copied
Open the Backup Manager and click Restore. A window
to a new folder
will open asking Restore from Where? where you can give the named test1
exact location of your backup folder and click Forward. Next instead of their
you will see the Restore from When? window. Any backups original location.

Online Backups
While keeping a backup on an external drive is Port Number is likely to be 21 or 22. You will also a password to make sure they are safe. If you
relatively safe, you may prefer to have the peace be asked to enter your FTPP username. The have very sensitive data it might be best to use a
of mind of storing it online. If you use a cloud Folder”field simply asks where on the FTP server hard drive or USB stick instead.
storage provider with a sync client like Dropbox you want to store your
then anything placed inside the relevant folder backups e.g /mybackups.
will automatically be backed up. Simply click on Return to the Overview
the Storage Location tab, then Local Folder and tab and click Back up Now.
change the backup location e.g home/Dropbox/ The first time you do this the
mybackups. Backup Manager will ask you
Déjà Dup supports other types of online to enter the password for
backup. The easiest to set up is probably FTP. In your FTP account. Check the
order to use this you will need to have FTP access box to have the Password
to a server. DriveHQ (www.drivehq.com) for Manager remember this
instance offers free FTP accounts with 1GB. automatically in future.
Once you have signed up for your account If you are backing up
choose FTP from the Storage Location menu and online it’s extremely important FTP is one of a number of supported methods to backup
fill in the information given by your provider. The to encrypt your backups with your files online. You’ll be asked for your password.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 69

 Doing more

Updates: Bug
free & secure
Understand why, where and how to update your Ubuntu System.

U
sers who are familiar with the rather aggressive
Quick manner in which Windows 10 was presented to some
tip people may be wary of the Ubuntu update process.
Updating in Ubuntu fortunately is much easier and you will
You can also
update individual remain in charge of the way you run updates.
applications There are two ways to make sure that your software is up
from the Ubuntu to date – from the command line and using the handy built in
Software Centre.
Software Updater. Running commands using Terminal can
Simply click the
icon, then the often be the fastest and easiest way to update but the
Updates tab. Click Software Updater is more user friendly.
Install beside each Simply click the search button in your menu bar and The system has automatically selected the closest server
app to update. search for Software Updater . Click the app icon to run it and for downloads, in this case in Ireland.
the system will check for updates. If there are updates
available a window will appear saying that new software has compatible with the most recent version of Ubuntu (See
been released and asking if you wish to install. Mastering the Backports boxout).
It may be tempting simply to click immediately on Install Clicking the Settings icon at the bottom left of the update
Now and allow the updates to run in the background but it window will display the Software and Updates window which
can be helpful to have a deeper understanding of updates in allows you to fine tune your updates settings.
order to better understand your system.
You will see that individual applications may be listed as Reading Repositories
eligible for updates such as Calculator, as well as Ubuntu If you have previously used Microsoft Windows, you may be
Base which is the underlying source code of your OS. You can used to having to download individual programs from
untick certain boxes to update each application however you websites in order to install new applications. This can be time
should only to do this if you’re certain that updating may consuming and also isn’t very safe, given that anyone can
break a certain feature. This can be important if you’re using write a program that contains malicious code.
plugins or features of a program that you know aren’t For an in-depth explanation of what repositories are and
do, feel free to read Ubuntu’s documentation at https://
help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories however in a
nutshell they are servers which contain sets of software
packages. They exist to make your life easier as thousands of
programs can be gathered into a repository meaning you
don’t have to search around for the right application.
Some OSs like Ubuntu take this a step further and have a
package manager (the Ubuntu Software Centre) which allows
you to explore the available programs and see a short
description to help you decide what you need. This is made
even simpler by the fact that the Ubuntu Software Centre
groups programs into categories such as Internet and Video.
There are many repositories available but the default ones
used by Ubuntu are listed in the Ubuntu Software tab of the
You can click Software and Updates window you opened earlier. The first
Install Now to repository ‘main’ includes all software created by Canonical –
apply available
the developers of Ubuntu. The ‘universe’ repository relates to
updates but
free software which is maintained by the community through
consider clicking
Settings first a dedicated group of people that contribute in their free time.
to configure This is often the reason that updates for certain apps do not
your update come all at once, as different programs are maintained by
preferences. different developers.

70 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Mastering the Backports

Users who use the regular versions of Ubuntu which by ticking the checkbox next to Unsupported Updates
are released in April and October each year, will receive in the Updates tab of Software and Updates. You will
bug fixes and security updates through the Update then be able to use the Ubuntu Software Centre to
Manager for nine months beginning from the date of update your applications as usual.
release. Newer versions of software or features are not There are very few situations where using Backports
supported, however. is better than upgrading to the next version of Ubuntu
One solution to this is to use an LTS version of or using an LTS release. If your system is running very
Ubuntu but for those who do not wish to upgrade at all, important software and you can’t afford to take it
the backports repository offers a third way, mainly offline, you may prefer to use the backports repository.
through providing new versions of individual Also updating via the backports repository can be more
applications which can be updated without breaking cost-effective if you pay for data you download versus
your system. installing an entirely new OS.
Although backport packages are tested by the If you have used backports previously and want to
Ubuntu Community there is a risk they may clash with upgrade your system, this can cause instability. Try The Plasma desktop is one
a newer feature or program on your system so they disabling backports and updating your system before example of a program that can be
should be used with caution. You can enable backports going ahead. updated via Backports in Ubuntu.

The ‘restricted’ and ‘multiverse’ repositories contain automatically install any updates critical to the safety of your
software which isn’t free and open. Examples could include system but let you choose when to install other kinds.
software developed by private companies such as a driver for If you do make any changes in the Software and Updates
a laptop wireless card or Oracle’s Java Runtime Environment. window you will be prompted to reload your settings before
Updates for these are usually provided by the manufacturer, being taken back to the Software Updater window. You’ll need
not the Ubuntu community. a working internet connection to apply any changes.
Understanding the difference between various types of Once you are back at the Software Updater menu click
repositories helps you to make informed decisions about Install Now to start updating. You may need to restart the
what you want. There are Linux zealots who do not use any machine to effect changes once the update is complete.
kind of proprietary software for instance, using free
alternatives or simply doing without. When you set up your Ubuntu Upgrades
installation of Ubuntu you usually check the box to say you Since 2006 Canonical have been releasing two versions of Quick
wish to download software to support some restricted Ubuntu per year, one in April, one in October. Each release is tip
Remember that
formats like MP3 files but if you did not, you can do so now. coded by month and year and has an alliterative animal The golden rule of
It is possible to add additional repositories to Ubuntu to name. Technically it’s possible to simply insert new DVDs into upgrades is always
allow installing additional packages. However Canonical have your new computer with the latest version of Ubuntu to install to make a backup of
your current system
gone to great lengths to make sure that most of the and upgrade, but this would wipe any data already on your
beforehand. See the
applications you need are available in their official repositories hard drive. For this reason, Ubuntu has a built in tool to allow Ubuntu Backups
so it’s best to search the Ubuntu Software Centre first before you to upgrade from one version to another. section for help
adding new repositories. Although two versions of Ubuntu are released per year, with this.
Ubuntu should automatically ‘ping’ the nearest server for every two years Canonical will release an LTS (Long Term
your country and display it but if you are having difficulty Support) version of Ubuntu. These versions can be updated
updating or Ubuntu has it wrong, you can change that here. without upgrading to the next available release of Ubuntu for
up to five years. Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) is an LTS
Ubuntu Updates version, which means Canonical will keep releasing security
Clicking on the Updates tab in the Software and Updates and maintenance updates for it until 2021. Ubuntu 16.10 is a
window allows you to fine tune your updates further. It’s regular release which means that updates will be supported
advisable to leave both Important Security Updates and for nine months after its release.
Recommended Updates checked. The Unsupported Updates Using the regular version of Ubuntu makes it less likely
are only important if you plan to keep using an regular non- that you will have a problem with recent software or new
LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu. hardware. The LTS release however saves you the trouble of
It is best to leave the other settings relating to when and doing a full system upgrade every nine months.
how to install updates to their defaults. This way Ubuntu will If you wish to go ahead with an upgrade to the next
available version of Ubuntu, first run a regular update using
Software Updater. Next click Search and type Software and
Updates. Click the Update tab and find the menu option
reading Notify me of a new Ubuntu version. Choose For any
new version. You’ll be asked to enter your password to
confirm. Close the window and then hold down Alt+F2. Type
update-manager in the search bar and click the icon.
The update manager will appear saying the software for
your current version is up to date but offering you the option
to upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu. Click Upgrade to
read the release information, then Upgrade again to begin.
Leave the security settings as they are but you can This will take some time to download so make sure to save
change the frequency for other updates if you wish. any work you have open.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 71

 Doing more

Desktop: Install
and switch DEs
Don’t like your distro’s desktop? No problem. Trade it in for an
environment that’s better suited to your needs.

O
ne of Linux’s great strengths is its versatility, and with those switching from Windows as it utilises a similar
unlike other operating systems that ability to style of desktop.
customise extends to your desktop environment
(DE). Each distribution (distro) of Linux ships with its own DE, Spice things up
and while they share superficial similarities – specifically the Cinnamon is highly configurable. Its main customisable
point-and-click WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) elements – known as ‘spices’ – are its themes, applets,
interface – there can be some quite radical differences in desklets (widgets you can place on the desktop) and
functionality as well as their look and feel. extensions. These allow you to radically alter its capabilities as
The good news is that you’re not locked into your distro’s well as its look and feel – the step-by-step guide (see right)
choice of desktop. Whether you’re planning to switch to a reveals how to tweak many of these settings.
Quick different distro, but are put off by the desktop that it employs, Four other desktop environments worth looking at include
tip or you’re looking for a fresh way to interact with your desktop, Xfce (www.xfce.org), Gnome (www.gnome.org), LXDE
Linux can accommodate you. In fact, you can even run (www.lxde.org), and KDE Plasma 5 (www.kde.org). Even if
Don’t like the look
multiple desktops side-by-side, allowing you to compare and you wanted to use Ubuntu’s default desktop, Unity, isn’t
of your new Xfce
desktop? Ubuntu contrast or use different desktops for different purposes. available as a standalone desktop for use in other systems.
sets the default Desktops are distributed as software packages, containing There are lots of things to consider when choosing your
GTK theme for all the disparate elements required to make that desktop desktop. How it looks is an obvious starting point, but does
Xfce, which means function (see the Anatomy of a Desktop box, below). Once that translate into making it easier for you to use? Some
missing icons and
desktops have been installed, you switch between them from desktops, eg, aren’t as configurable as Cinnamon, so it’s
ugly looking panels.
Change this to the the login screen by clicking the desktop icon that appears in important you explore all the options there are before
Xfce style and Tango the logon box next to your username. deciding if a desktop has the functionality and flexibility you
icons by selecting So, if you’re itching to try out some alternatives to your need in a package you’re happy to look at. Despite their
Applications
default distro, we’d say you can’t go wrong starting with differences, you’ll notice similarities between many Linux DEs.
Menu > Settings >
Appearance. Cinnamon (http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com). It’s the That’s because they are basically variants of Gnome. Unity is
default desktop in Linux Mint, and is particularly popular the obvious example here, sharing many of its elements, but

The anatomy of a desktop

Your desktop is the virtual environment in which etc – are stored in special libraries. These and terminal emulator, as well as a tweak tool
you work, and provides a friendlier user interface include the widget toolkit, which is also utilised that allows various aspects of the desktop to
with which to interact with your PC. The desktop by applications so they can work seamlessly be customised.
consists of a number of different elements to with the desktop. Two main toolkits exist: Qt and
produce the working environment you know and GTK, and while you can run applications made in
love – or hate, if you’re switching. one toolkit on a desktop built using another, they
The desktop typically contains icons, don’t tend to look as good.
windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers and – Many of these elements are stored in a
optionally – desktop widgets. Most of what you’ll theme, which makes it easy for users to change
see is provided by the window manager. As its a desktop’s look and appearance by defining
name implies it determines how the desktop’s how key elements look in terms of shape, colour
windowing system works by taking responsibility and other elements.
for the placement and appearance of windows Desktops also ship with a number of core
and their component parts, such as menus, title tools and utilities, designed specifically to work It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your DE
bars and control buttons. The desktop’s well with that environment. Typical elements is, they all share the same building blocks:
graphical elements – buttons, scrollbars, icons include a file manager, image viewer, text editor toolbars, desktop, widget and windows etc.

72 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 Doing more

Remove unwanted desktops

You can install as many desktop environments remove the rest. It goes without saying you Here’s the two commands you’ll need:
as you like – aside from taking up space on your shouldn’t be logged into the DE that you’re $ sudo apt-get remove packagename
hard drive, they don’t consume any resources planning to remove. $ sudo apt-get autoremove
unless you’re actually running one. With that prerequisite out of the way, Replace ‘packagename’ with the desktop’s
But there may come a time when you’ve removing the desktop is best done from the package name, which will be one of the
finished experimenting with desktops, settled on Terminal, particularly if you plan to remove all following: cinnamon, plasma-desktop (KDE
your favourite (or favourites) and want to the software the DE installed alongside itself. Plasma 5), gnome, lxde or xfce4 (Xfce).

even the likes of Cinnamon betray their roots through the use In the case of Ubuntu, you’ll find Xfce (type xfce4 into the
of similar applications, built using the GTK toolkit that Gnome Search box to locate it), Gnome and LXDE are all available
employs. The big rival to Gnome is KDE, and its differences through the Software Center. Click ‘More Info’ when you’ve
extend beyond the fact it employs the Qt toolkit rather than found one – because they usually ship with optional
GTK. For starters, it’s one of the most configurable tools out components added in, you might want to review these before
there, which makes it more popular with advanced users. clicking the ‘Install’ button. Cinnamon and KDE Plasma 5
There’s also a question of performance and power require a trip to the Terminal. In the case of Cinnamon, enter:
consumption. Some desktops are more resource hungry than $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lestcape/cinnamon
others, eg Unity and KDE Plasma 5. The increased demands $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cinnamon
do come with benefits, such as: a wider feature set, a bigger For KDE Plasma 5, use these commands:
range of tools and flashier looks, which are missing from $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
lightweight alternatives such as LXDE. But that means they’re $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop
less suitable for older and low-powered machines.
The best thing to do is run a couple of them and see how Working with desktops
they perform – you should notice those with a smaller Once you’ve installed a new desktop, log out of your account.
footprint are the most responsive, particularly on slow PCs. When you find yourself back at the login screen you should
They also place fewer demands on power consumption, see an icon next to your username. Click this and you’ll see a
which should benefit those running on batteries. Remember, list of available desktops appear – in some cases you’ll see
thanks to the fact you can easily switch between desktops, multiple options based on a single desktop. Select one, then
you can mix and match – a low-powered desktop while on the enter your password and log in as normal to start using it.
road, with a more fully featured environment for when When you log into a new desktop for the first time, none of
plugged into the mains. your existing preferences will come across from your old DE
You’re ready to start experimenting with desktops, so how (but don’t worry, they’re all still there, ready and waiting for you
do you install them? In some cases you can simply search for the next time you log back into your original desktop). One of
the desktop using your distro’s software centre, but for others the benefits of having to make changes to your new desktop
you may have to manually add the repositories (repos) early on is that it forces you to explore, giving you insight into
yourself before installing through Terminal. how it works and what tweaks you can perform.

Customise your new desktop

1 Tweak the taskbar 2 Customise look and feel 3 Change behaviour

The Cinnamon’s taskbar is called the panel Click the ‘Menu’ button and select the ‘System Hot Corners enable you to specify actions that
and is split into three sections: menu button, Settings’ button to change the way Cinnamon occur when your mouse goes into a corner of
app shortcuts and applets. You can pin app looks. In the Appearance section, you can the screen, such as showing the desktop or
shortcuts to it by clicking ‘Menu’, right-clicking change the background and system font displaying all workspaces. Windows is where
the app shortcut and choosing ‘Pin to panel’. (you’ll see options from other desktops you’ve you can edit the way windows behave and
Right-clicking the panel reveals more options, installed too). Selecting Themes and clicking alter the display of the task switcher. Finally,
like adding new applets or adding a second ‘Add/remove desktop themes…’ you can the Extensions allows you to customise using
panel (choose ‘Modify panel…’). download more themes to pick from. third-party plugins.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 73

 System settings

74 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 System settings

System
settings
Ubuntu system settings............................... 76
Configure your display.................................. 78
Tweak your system sound...........................80
Optical and removable drives .....................82
Wireless and wired networks ..................... 84
Display drivers explained .............................86
Anti-virus and security..................................88
Troubleshoot start up issues ......................90
How to get help .............................................94

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 75

 System settings

Settings: Tweak
your install
Everyone likes to change the preferences to suite their own likes, we take you
through the most important areas worth looking at.

I
t’s highly likely that system settings are very important to region. More interestingly it also holds settings for how the
you and rightly so, they ensure you can adjust how time is displayed at the top of the screen and how
Ubuntu works to suit your tastes and needs. It’s clear how appointment notifications are handled.
important settings are a link to Settings is provided right Device Colour Profiles is a largely overlooked area, partly
there on the Launch bar – look for the cog and spanner icon. as it’s not always obvious why it’s needed but also as the
All the standard controls can be found here. A number of the systems can seem needlessly complicated. We’re not going
big sections found here we look at elsewhere in this to try and explain everything here but the basic idea of colour
magazine, for example the Display and Sound (and management is to try and match the original colours of an
Bluetooth) are looked at in the next two sections over the image with the output colours, be that on a monitor, projector
page. While Network, Printers, Backup and Updates have or printer. Just as the colours produced by a display vary,
their own sections too. colours printed are again very different from printer to printer
Before we tackle those we’re going to take a little time to – while a display generates pure white, a printer has to use
ensure things are set to your liking, explain how to tweak the paper white. The colour management system attempts to
settings beyond the basics and improve the accessibility for compensate for this ensuring colours in photos look correct
people with visual and audio impairments. when viewed on a monitor or printed. If your device offers an
To kick off we can cover the vital settings for the mouse ICC colour profile you can import that through the Colour
and keyboard. We won’t insult your intelligence for the mouse Management settings to get better colour reproduction.
settings, as it’s largely movement speed and mouse click Alternatively if you own a colour calibration device, you can
speeds. Though there are options for click and dragging on calibrate your monitor via this setting too.
touchpads. Keyboard settings include the ability to select Power consumption is unfortunately something that Linux
your language and keyboard layout, alongside making it often fails short of when compared to running Windows on
easier to access or opt for an on-screen keyboard if you don’t the same device. It’s partly to do with companies (that’s
have one attached. largely Intel) not supplying the best chipset drivers to the
Linux kernel, but it’s also partly the basic power support Linux
Shortcuts distros offer. You’ll find a basic Suspend timer, click the
The most useful section is the Shortcut tab in the Keyboard Screen Brightness link to also access the screen off timer, but
settings. Here you’re able to look up what the existing that’s about it here. Using the Synaptic install you can add the
shortcuts are - this includes settings shortcuts for special indicator-cpufreq app to add a fine-grain control to the status
keys that keyboards often have along the top - such as bar at the top of the screen, after a reboot.
pressing Print Screen to grab the entire screen but also Shift
Print enables you to select an area to grab. Users
Time and date options include, surprisingly, setting the User accounts are a key part of how Linux works, more so
time and date. It also enables you to set the timezone and than with Windows. At its heart Linux is a multi-user system,

Tweak town
As is seemingly always the case with operating desktop system is called Unity, hence the name
systems – Ubuntu, Windows or OSX – it seems the and you’re able to install it through the Software
creators never really want you to change their beloved Centre. Just tap Unity Tweak Tool into the search
interface too much. Even with the open source, huggy, and click Install.
community feel to Ubuntu, they never let people One of the key points that Ubuntu users have been
actually adjust it too much. On one side you can just calling for was the ability to shift the Launcher bar
install a new desktop – see page 72 for how you can from the left-hand edge of the desktop down to the
do that – but it’d be nice if you could just tweak the bottom edge. The Unity Tweak Tool was the first way
default desktop. Thankfully you can, by installing a to do that, though the functionality has been added to The main way to tweak Ubuntu is
little tool oddly called Unity Tweak Tool. The Ubuntu the official Display section. using its Unity Tweaking tool.

76 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 System settings

Language support
Generally you’ll choose your native language and wait a second and it’ll activate. Use the Install/ might need access to different keyboard layouts
keyboard settings while Ubuntu is installing, so Remove Languages button to do just that, this and this provides ways to switch between them
you can type and read things easily. If you need to opens up a huge array of languages, just tick the using keyboard shortcuts and the top-bar
change this post install or add additional box of the new language you want to use. Activate language icon.
languages you can do this through the Language it and click the Apple system-wide button.
Support settings. When first chosen you’ll be The Regional Formats tab section enables you
prompted to install additional support files. to control how numbers, dates and times are
By default it’ll show the current active displayed. There’s no fine control here, but it
languages that are used by Ubuntu in its menus offers a wide range of base configurations for
and windows. These are listed in order of priority, local regions.
so if the first language is not available it’ll use the Connected to the subject of language is the
next one down. Installed languages that are not Text Entry settings. If you need to access more
active will be shown in grey. To activate a than one style of input language source, this
language drag it above the base English option, provide controls over just that. Often people

so it’s been designed from the start to accommodate multiple number of accounts including Facebook, Google, Jabber (a
users working on the same system, yet being entirely secure chat system), Flickr and Yahoo!. It usefully also enables you to
from each other. At its most basic this means more than filter the accounts by what programs they can be linked into,
person can use the same Linux system, their files are entirely this is useful for example if you want to know which enable
separated from the other users and they can have their own images to be managed from Shotwell, for example.
settings. Alongside adding, removing and changing accounts
you can also launch a secure guest session to enable friends Security and privacy
or strangers to temporarily use your system securely. People take their privacy far more seriously these days – it’s a
You can configure what applications should be started at huge failing of Windows 10 and Google services – and even
login, in addition to the default startup applications Ubuntu has had its slip ups. That’s why there’s a dedicated
configured on the system. Use the Dash to find and open Security & Privacy section that’s dedicated to ensuring your
Startup Applications. Alternatively, you can press Alt+F2 and details stay secure and on your PC. The section kicks off with
run the gnome-session-properties command. Click Add and the usual protections over requiring a password to wake from
enter the command to be executed at login (name and sleep and a blank screen.
comment are optional). For example, to make Firefox start The next three tabs are about securing your details better.
automatically, it’s sufficient to type firefox in the Command File & Application enables you to select what the Dash Search
field and confirm with Add. should return. You may want to remove your chat logs for
example or if it’s annoying, not have it search music and other
Online accounts files. The Search tab can eliminate searching online and
Ubuntu can tie directly into a range of online accounts, this Diagnostics will block sending details back to Ubuntu HQ.
enables the OS to drag into notifications, emails calendar There’s also the Details section which provides just that on
events and more directly to the built-in notification system your system. Once you’re familiar with Ubuntu it’s not an area
and install programs. The Online Accounts system manages you’ll need to use much but make yourself comfortable by
all of these and provides support for a small but useful tweaking the settings to your liking.

The Ubuntu
settings look
pretty thin on
the ground and
in a way they are,
which actually
makes life easy!

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 77

 System settings

Displays: Set
all your screens
Master the basics of configuring you monitor options such as resolution,
visual effects, screen savers and more.

U
buntu is designed to be easy to set up and the
default settings for your display should make for a
Quick user friendly experience. However if the default
tip settings aren’t optimal or you wish to personalise Ubuntu, you
If you want to should first click on Search and go to Appearance.
fine tune Ubuntu From here you will see that you can choose from various
further, install
Unity Tweak Tool
built in desktop backgrounds. If you have downloaded your
from the Ubuntu own background from the internet, you can also use this.
Software Centre. It Simply place your chosen image in your Pictures folder and
can change system from the drop down menu in Appearance, click Wallpapers
fonts, cursors,
then choose Pictures Folder and select your image of choice.
and even install
new themes. See Another useful tweak you can make here is to change your
https://help. theme. As the name suggests themes are simply the way
ubuntu.com/ your system appears from the colour of window borders By default Ubuntu will cycle through random
community/ down to the fonts used. The default Ambiance theme can be screensavers but you can choose just one if you wish.
UbuntuEyeCandy
for more
changed to the lighter Radiance. You can also choose the
information. High Contrast theme which might be useful for visually that time meaning when you return to your machine you’ll
impaired users. Use the slider marked Launcher Icon Size to need your password to access your desktop again.
increase/decrease the size of icons on your launch bar. Most modern monitors and televisions are LCDs and do
not suffer from the problems plaguing old CRT screens that
Ubuntu Screensavers used to result in images being burned into a screen if left on
More recent versions of Ubuntu don’t come with any for too long, hence there being less need for screensavers.
screensavers built in. The monitor will simply switch off after Nevertheless if you prefer to see something more arousing
a certain length of time. You can access these settings by on your machine than a blank screen when idle, you can do
going to System Settings > Brightness and Lock. this by installing another. First click search and launch the
By default the screen will dim itself to save power then Terminal application. Remove the existing screensaver by
lock after five minutes of inactivity. The screen will also lock at typing in the following command, then pressing return:
sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
You will be asked to enter your login password to confirm
that you wish to remove it. Do this and hit return. Next, hit Y to
confirm that you do indeed wish to remove this program. This
will only take a few moments. Now type the following
command to install the new program along with a colourful
selection of screensavers:
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra
xscreensaver-gl-extra
Hit Y once again and wait for the text to scroll past for the
install to complete. Click the search button and type
Screensaver to launch the new application.
You will see a variety of different screensavers in the box
on the left hand side of the window. Feel free to scroll through
these and then click the Preview button to see what they
would look like full screen. As you will see from the Dropdown
Menu Mode, the default setting sees Ubuntu cycle through
the available screensavers randomly, however you have the
option to tell it to choose one screen saver only or never to
Use the Appearance application to change your Wallpaper and Theme. power off if you wish.

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 System settings

Multiple Monitors
To use another monitor with your device, first of all Mirror Displays if you prefer for them to show the
connect it to you machine and log in to the Ubuntu same content e.g if you are giving a presentation. This
Desktop. Click the search bar and launch the Displays may limit your resolution options if the displays have
app. Click on your secondary monitor and then on the different capabilities. The General Options section
rocker switch below to turn it on or off. If you’re show by default the Launcher on every display. Click
unable to see your monitor try clicking the Detect All Displays to choose a primary monitor if you prefer.
Displays button. If your device has a built in display an Sticky Edges is an extremely useful feature which
alert box will show at the top left of your screen. prevents you accidentally moving the mouse off
Once your secondary monitor has been screen onto the other monitor. When your mouse
enabled,feel free to drag it around to the position of reaches the edge of one screen it will need an extra
your choice e.g you may wish to have it immediately push to move to the other. By default this is switched Multiple displays is easy!
below your current display. You can also choose to on but hit the rocker switch if you want to turn this off.

The Wobbly
Click the checkbox next to Lock in order to require the
Windows
password when dismissing the screensaver. effect isn’t
If you want to fine tune your power settings click the compatible with
Advanced tab and check the box next to Power Management the Snapping
Enabled. You can suspend or switch off your display after a Windows effect.
certain amount of time. When effects
directly clash
Resolution and Rotation you are given a
The display resolution is simply the number of pixels that can choice to disable
the old effect
be displayed on your monitor, usually expressed as width x
and enable the
height e.g 1024 x 768. Ubuntu will try to detect the optimal Compiz manages many of the visual effects on your
new or vice versa.
resolution for your monitor but you may wish to change this if desktop (see below) and is a very powerful tool. As such you
the display is too small or you have specific requirements. will see a warning when you first launch the Compiz
Click the search button and type Displays. This application Configuration Manager. Click OK to dismiss this, then on the
will allow you to change various aspects of your display General category on the left hand side. Next click Composite
including the resolution. Click the drop down menu to see the to view the settings for the monitor refresh rate. If you wish to
various settings supported by your monitor. Click Apply at the manually change this, uncheck the box next to Detect Refresh
bottom right to effect your changes. Rate and then specify a new value in the box below.
Below the resolution menu you can change the rotation of
the screen if you have a specialised setup. You can also use Visual Effects
the slider bar to increase the size of menu and title bars. The As mentioned the Compiz Configuration Manager is an
remaining settings pertain to using more than one display. extremely advanced tool and allows you to do much more
See Multiple Monitors above for more help with this. than change a monitor’s refresh rate. It also governs visual
The Refresh rate is simply the number of times a second effects for your desktop, windows and much more.
that images on your monitor are redrawn, measured in Hertz. It’s not necessary to have these but it can make for a
For normal LCD displays a value of 60Hz is standard and much slicker look and feel for your desktop. To explore the full
Ubuntu should automatically detect the optimal settings for range of options, first open your Terminal application and
your monitor. However, newer high-end displays support install some extra visual effects with the following command:
faster rates up to 144Hz that you might need to select here sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins-extra
but only if directed to by the manufacturer. Once installation is complete, open the Compiz
The easiest way to view and change the refresh rate is to Configuration Manager and click on Effects on the left hand
install CompizConfig Settings Manager from the Ubuntu side. You will see that certain window effects are already
Software Centre. Once installed, click the icon to open it. enabled such as Fading Windows. Feel free to experiment by
enabling/disabling other effects. The Compiz Manager will
alert you if you try to enable two effects which clash.

Display Dilemmas
As stunning as the visual effects are, they will place a greater
strain on your graphics card which can be an issue for older
or budget machines. The aforementioned Unity Tweak tool
has a handy button for restoring your settings to default. You
can also use the Compiz Configuration Manager to disable
effects individually.
If you are still having issues with rich graphics overloading
your system, consider switching to Lubuntu, a variation of
Ubuntu which uses the same base code with the resource
light LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). This uses
You have 30 seconds to accept settings to ensure you a much simpler desktop and so needs far less system
don’t select an incompatible screen setting. resources. See http://lubuntu.net for more information.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 79

 System settings

Sound: Tweak
your audio
Explore Ubuntu’s sound settings as well as how to connect external speakers
and make everything sound perfectly sweet.

I
n this section we will explore how your sound is managed
in Ubuntu as well as how to connect external speakers
Quick and microphones to your machine. We will also discuss
tip suitable programs for recording and playing back audio as
If you are playing well as how to troubleshoot sound issues.
music through the Your Ubuntu system’s sound is managed by a program
Firefox browser,
you can disable
named Pulseaudio. Technically Pulseaudio is known as a
sound in individual sound server which sits between your various programs and
tabs by clicking the sound hardware. It is capable of mixing several sounds
loudspeaker icon together or playing to multiple devices at once, provided it is
besides the small ‘x’.
properly configured.
As with the Output tab you can choose your device from
Volume and playback the pane on the left hand side. Adjust the input volume
using the slider switch on the right.
For most users audio will work out of the box after
installing Ubuntu however if you wish to connect external
speakers or adjust settings for individual applications you The applications tab in Sound Settings is extremely useful
may need to access your Sound Settings. as it allows you to adjust the volume for individual programs.
Volume can be adjusted two ways in Ubuntu. Firstly by If, say, you are listening to a music CD while browsing the BBC
clicking on the sound icon in the menu bar to move the website, you may not want to hear the commentary from
volume switch either to the left or the right. Secondly you can news videos, so you can mute the web browser’s volume.
open the Sound Settings menu from here to fine tune audio.
If you do not see the sound icon use the search bar to open Input devices
System Settings, then click Sound. Settings for Input devices like USB microphones or webcams
Some keyboards also have volume controls. Look for the with internal microphones can be accessed from the Input
loudspeaker icon. You may need to hold down the tab in Sound Settings. In the same way as for the speakers if
‘Fn’(Function) key before pressing them to alter the volume. your input device connects via USB it will be listed separately.
The sound settings menu also allows you to choose your Simply click it with your mouse to have Ubuntu use it for
audio output device. Simply click on the device on the left sound recording moving forward.
hand side of the window. If you use earphones or speakers Take some time to look at the Settings for Microphone.
with a 3.5mm jack then the Play Sound Through box will Increasing the input volume will change how sensitive the
simply display headphones. microphone is. This is helpfully displayed in the Input Level
Depending on the speaker setup you have, you can take bar below.
this opportunity to review the various settings for your At the bottom of the Sound Settings window, you can
speakers. The slider switches you’ll find here are fairly self choose to Show Sound Volume in the Menu Bar. If this is
explanatory allowing you to adjust the balance, fade and unticked for any reason click it to be able to access sound
subwoofer individually. settings easily in future.
If you need a way to record short audio clips with minimal
fuss, install the Sound Recorder application from the Ubuntu
Once the Sound Software Centre. The interface is very basic but will allow you
Settings menu is to record and play back short clips.
open, click Test
If you need a more fully featured audio recorder e.g for
Sound to launch
mixing various tracks or trimming your recordings, consider
a window that
will play sounds downloading Audacity which has many more features. Visit
for each of your www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/yakkety/
speakers e.g universe/base/audacity and click on the red button marked
front left and APT install to begin the installation. Ubuntu’s bundled music
front right. player is called Rhythmbox. It has all the basic functions of a

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 System settings

Pairing Bluetooth speakers

Ubuntu can connect and play audio wirelessly to Once Bluetooth is switched on, consult the listed as a device in the Output tab. Select it to
most Bluetooth speakers. If you want to proceed, manufacturer’s instructions to put your speakers start playing sound over Bluetooth.
in addition to Bluetooth compatible speakers your into Discovery mode so they can be detected by
computer must support Bluetooth. Use the your computer.
search bar to search for Bluetooth if you’re Launch the Bluetooth application again from
uncertain if your machine supports this. If it isn’t the search bar and make sure that both the
supported you’ll see a message stating No switches at the top of the window are set to on,
Bluetooth adapters found. to activate bluetooth and make your computer
Fortunately there are a number of small USB discoverable.
adapters online that you can plug in to make your Click the + button at the bottom left of the
device support Bluetooth. For a list of Ubuntu window to search for your bluetooth headset or
compatible Bluetooth USB adapters visit http:// speakers. Click to highlight when it appears in the
bit.ly/LXF26blue. pane and click Next at the bottom left. Ideally a
The device used for this illustration (see the message will appear saying that the new device
screenshot right) was a Micro 10m USB adapter has successfully been set up. Make sure to select the headset or
purchased from Argos for £9.99 which worked out Click the volume icon to open your Sound speaker set as your playback device in
of the box on a machine running Ubuntu 16.10. Settings. You will see the Bluetooth device is now Sound Settings too.

music player such as organising and playing tracks by album

name, artist and genre. When you first run Rhythmbox it will Quick
automatically search your local music folder and display any tip
tracks there.
To see a full list
As you will see (screenshot below) from the pane on the
of Ubuntu music
left hand side, Rhythmbox also supports playing internet players open
radio and comes with a number of pre-loaded channels. the Software
Users can also search and subscribe to Podcasts by clicking Centre and click
audio under
on the Podcast sections
Categories. Next
You can enhance Rhythmbox even further by accessing choose Players. If
the Plugins via the Tools Menu. This allows you to add other you’re happy with
The PulseAudio Volume Control (left) and the alsamixer
channels, play FM radio and play Rhythmbox over the web. app (right). Both are ideal for checking the playback or
Rhythmbox see
the Getting Started
recording volume for individual devices.
Sound troubleshooting guide at https://
help.ubuntu.com/
If you are unable to hear sound on your machine, it’s community/
important to isolate exactly where the issue lies. Rhythmbox.
If sound plays for some media but not for others, it’s likely This media player is capable of playing virtually any video or
you have an issue with certain formats of files. As Ubuntu is audio format.
free software it doesn’t include software for playing certain If your sound is not working at all, first check your
media types protected by copyright or patents such as sound settings to make sure the correct output device is
Quicktime or Windows Media Video. For a full list of restricted selected and the volume is turned up. If everything seems
formats visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ in order, you may need to adjust the sound for your particular
RestrictedFormats. output device.
When you initially set up Ubuntu you were given the option Open Terminal on your machine and run the command
to download support for these formats. If you didn’t do so at alsamixer . This will display each of your playback devices Quick
the time, you can do so now by opening the Terminal and allow you to alter the volume for each. Use the left/right tip
application on Ubuntu and running the command: arrow keys to move between devices and the up/down keys If you’re unsure
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras to change the volume. Press Escape to exit when you are if the sound is
Press return to enter the command, then Y to confirm you done, Ubuntu will remember the new settings. working for some
want to install. If you are still having trouble playing certain In order to fine tune your sound settings even further files. Hold Alt + F2
and type aplay
files, consider installing vlc from the Ubuntu Software Centre. consider installing the PulseAudio Volume Control
/usr/share/
application from the software centre. Not only is it easier on sounds/alsa/
the eye but you can control more advanced settings like Front_Center.
Ports and latency. wav. You should
hear a voice saying
If you are having trouble connecting your bluetooth
Front Centre.
headset or speakers (See Pairing Bluetooth Speakers), try
pairing them with another computer to make sure the
discovery mode is enabled.
If all else fails you can reset your sound settings to default
by opening the Terminal application and entering the
following command:
sudo rm -r ~/.config/pulse; pulseaudio -k
Use the left pane to change between your own music For more in depth troubleshooting of sound in Ubuntu
collection, podcasts and internet radio. Portable music visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
players such as iPods will also display here. SoundTroubleshootingProcedure.

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 System settings

Drives: Access
flash and
optical media
Your Linux install is not an island. Here’s how to access both flash
storage and optical media using Ubuntu’s built-in tools.

L
inux handles drives differently to Windows, so if you’ve searching for ‘exfat’. Install ‘exfat-fuse’ followed by ‘exfat-utils’
migrated from a Windows PC, we recommend you first if you’re running Ubuntu 64-bit, or choose the i386 labelled
familiarise youself with how drives are labelled and versions if you’re running the 32-bit version. If you don’t know
accessed in Ubuntu. The good news is that – once you’ve which version you’re running, go to System Settings > Details
over the initial shock – the transition isn’t that big. And now and examine the ‘OS type’ entry to find out. Once installed,
you’ve understood how things work, you can go on to learn full read/write support to any exFAT drive will be enabled.
more about removable media, including USB flash storage as USB drives are registered in the same way as hard drives
well as CD and DVD. – open Disks to confirm the individual label for your drive.
Select its volume and you’ll see it’s something like /dev/sdb1
Working with USB drives or /dev/sde1 depending on how many other drives are
Ubuntu is more than happy to work with USB storage of present. Unlike permanently attached drives, these identifiers
any nature – hard drives and flash drives are treated equally. aren’t constant. They’re applied on a first-come, first-served
Quick Just plug it in, and the drive will be automatically mounted basis, so if you were to unplug one drive, then plug it back
tip and accessible, so long as it’s formatted using a supported in having first attached another drive, its label will change.
Verify what your
file system. Ubuntu ships with built-in support for both Always verify the label in Disks before performing any tasks
CD or DVD drive is FAT32 and NTFS file systems as well as its own ext-based that require you to identify or address it by its identifier.
capable of doing in file system – once mounted, you can read and write to the Once plugged in, your drive should show up in the
Ubuntu by opening drive like any other. Nautilus file manager – its actual mount point can be
a Terminal window,
Larger drives – typically 64GB or bigger – are occasionally found under /media/<username>/<volumelabel>,
typing wodim
-prcap and then formatted in the exFAT format. Support for exFAT isn’t where <volumelabel> is the name you gave it when the
hitting [Enter]. included in Ubuntu by default, but you can quickly add full partition was created. Unlike the drive’s identifier, this does
read/write support by opening the Software Centre and stay the same.
When you’ve finished with the drive and want to remove it,
click the eject button next to the drive name in Nautilus to
unmount it before unplugging it. If you need to remove a drive
from the Terminal, use the umount command. By default, the
umount command is used to remove individual volumes, but
by including the -a flag you can ensure all volumes for a
particular drive are unmounted, allowing you to remove the
drive safely even if it’s been partitioned. Point umount
towards a specific volume or its mountpoint using the
following syntax:
umount -a /dev/sde1
umount -a /media/nick/RPi0
Once done, remove or eject the drive.

Read-only mount
Sometimes you may wish to access a USB drive in read-only
mode, so data can’t accidentally be written to the drive. By
Pop a media or blank disc into your DVD drive and Ubuntu will pop up this default, Ubuntu will mount any supported filesystem in read/
helpful dialogue box. write mode. The trick is to use the umount command with a

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 System settings

special flag (-r) to unmount the selected volume, then

remount it in read-only mode – for example:
umount -r /media/nick/RPi0
If you find you can’t unmount a drive using the -a
command, you can use the -r flag instead on each mounted
volume from that drive to remount them in read-only mode.
This means you can then physically remove the drive without
worrying about data loss.

Optical drives
CD and DVD drives are handled differently to regular hard
drives. First, they’re assigned different IDs - /dev/sr0,
/dev/sr1 and so on. You’ll also see they’re marked as read-
only by default, even if the drive itself is a burner.
How you interact with discs depends on the disc itself.
If the disc is recognised, it’ll be mounted inside the / Rhythmbox can extract audio from your CDs as well as play them back to you.
media/<username> folder like other removable drives,
making it accessible through the Terminal as well as via
Nautilus. If the disc is a straightforward data disc, it Burn discs
should open in Nautilus, enabling you to browse and Insert a blank disc and you’ll be prompted to open CD/DVD Quick
access its contents. Creator. This provides a similar interface to Nautilus – drag tip
Other types – multimedia and writable discs – are files onto the window, give your disc a suitable title and click You can also attach
handled slightly different. A pop-up window will appear, ‘Write to Disc’ to burn a data disc. MMC/SD cards to
similar to that which appears when you insert a disc in A more sophisticated tool for burning discs comes in the Linux – if these are
plugged directly into
Windows. You’ll be asked if you want to open a specific shape of Brasero. Launch this when prompted (or open it a card slot
application, which varies on the type of disc you’ve inserted, from the Dash) with a blank disc inserted into your drive, then (as opposed
plus there are options for opening the drive in Files to select your project: you can create an audio CD, data disc, or to using a USB
explore its contents, or do nothing. video DVD/SVCD, plus there are tools for copying one disc to adapter), they’ll
be identified using
Your app choice depends on what’s installed – Ubuntu another as well as burning discs from support image formats
mmcblkx rather
ships with four apps that can be used from the off: (ISO, TOC and CUE). There’s even a built-in cover editor than sdx. They work
Rhythmbox (playing and ripping audio CDs), Videos (select Tools > Cover Editor) for designing and printing a in the same way as
(watching DVD movies), CD/DVD Creator (burning data cover for a regular CD jewel case, plus you can erase other media.
discs) and Brasero (burning all kinds of discs, including rewritable discs by selecting Tools > Blank…
DVD, SVCD and audio CD). Brasero is simple to use as the annotation below reveals –
By default, Ubuntu can’t play certain restricted formats, it’s mostly just a case of dragging and dropping the files you
including encrypted DVDs. To play commercial DVDs, install wish to add to your disc in the correct order. There are also
the libdvd-pkg software from the Software Centre – once plenty of alternative burning tools out there – to create a
done, you’ll find Videos is able to play them, as will other third- video DVD with menus and try DVDStyler, for example, or
party tools, including VLC Media Player. check out K3b for a more general-purpose alternative.

Exploring Brasero
Access older projects
Choose File > Save to make a copy of your
project before you’re ready to burn it. You can
then return to it for further tweaking.

Project type
Brasero allows you to burn all kinds of discs: audio, video
and data, plus burn discs from image files and copy from
one disc to another (two optical drives required).

File and folder controls

These buttons allow you to add and remove files to
your project, plus perform other context-sensitive
tweaks such as creating new folders for data discs.

File list Choose media Burn disc

Review the current list of files, tracks or videos that Click this dropdown menu to switch between Once you’re ready, click the Burn button. Set your
you plan to burn – media tracks can be clicked and available drives or make a disc image. A handy speed, plus tweak options like leaving the disc open.
dragged to change their running order. guide tells you how much free space is left. You can even burn several copies if required.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 83

 System settings

Networks: Get
and stay online
Connect to your local network and the internet via Ubuntu, we explain all the
settings you’ll need to know to manage your home network.

I
f you have previous experience with connecting your
Quick computer to a network then it’s unlikely Ubuntu will hold
tip any surprises. The easiest and fastest connections will be
via a wired Ethernet cable.
For more
information on your If, as is more likely nowadays, you have WiFi in your home
current connection, or office or have a more complicated setup, open the Network
click the network Manager by clicking the search bar and typing Network. You
icon at the top right will see all available connections such as Wireless and Wired.
of the screen and
If you use a cable connection click this to check the manager
choose Connection
Information. Your reads connected.
ISP may need this If your home or workplace uses a proxy server, this is also If you have more than one wireless adapter (see below)
information if you’re where to specify it. Simply click on Network Proxy on the left the dropdown menu lets you choose which to use.
having connection
hand side, then click on None in the drop down menu. Choose
difficulties.
Manual and enter the network settings given to you by your by a password or wireless key. You can usually find this in the
ISP (Internet Service Provider) or Network Administrator. documentation sent by your ISP with your router or written
on the underside of the router itself. Enter the password and
Wireless networking click Connect to link your computer to the wireless network.
Although it’s possible to connect to wireless networks from If you have a Hidden Wifi network then you will need to
within the Network Manager, it’s easier simply to click on the enter the password and the name of the wireless network and
network icon at the top right of the screen. the type of security used such as WEP or WPA. You can obtain
If you have a WiFi network in your home or office, it’s likely this information from whoever set up your wireless router.
you will have connected to it already when setting up Ubuntu,
so before proceeding, check the name of your local wireless Wireless USB
network and see if there is the option to disconnect. Launch Not all wireless cards are compatible with Ubuntu as they use
the Firefox browser and try to visit a few web addresses to proprietary software drivers. If there is no Linux driver for your
make sure your connection is working. WiFi card you may be able to use the program Ndiswrapper
If you are not already connected, try to find your network to convert the Windows driver to work with it. See https://
name in the drop down list. Hover your mouse over more help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/
networks if you do not see yours listed there. If you find the Ndiswrapper for more information.
menu too difficult to navigate consider using the Network If your WiFi still doesn’t work and you are unable to click
Manager. Click Wireless on the left hand side to see all Enable WiFi in the network menu, you may prefer to buy a
available networks. Your network will most likely be protected USB WiFi dongle. The Ubuntu website has a non exhaustive
list of wireless USB devices which will work with Linux at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/
WirelessCardsSupported.
If you have more than one working wireless device such as
an internal wireless card in a laptop and a USB WiFi dongle,
both devices will be listed separately in the network menu.
They can also be connected to separate wireless networks.
This can be useful if you wish to set up a WiFi Hotspot…

Wireless hotspots
If you have another method of connecting to the internet
besides your WiFi card e.g another WiFi device, Ethernet cable
or Bluetooth connection, you can set up a WiFi hotspot. This
enables other devices to connect via wireless to your Ubuntu
The Network Manager on a PC with two wireless cards and Ethernet port. computer and share the internet connection.

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 System settings

your network provider. Click Save when you are done to add
the connection. Quick
tip
Connection issues Remember that The
If your wireless connection is not working at all, there are Official Raspberry
simple steps you can take to arrive at the heart of the Pi WiFi Adapter,
available for £6
problem. If your computer previously worked with the same
from the Pi Hut
wireless network, then firstly check that it is not connected website will work
via an Ethernet cable. Also check the Network menu to out of the box
ensure both Enable Networking and Enable WiFi are checked. in Ubuntu as it’s
You’ll need to give both the network name and security designed for Linux.
You can also use the Network Manager to check you are
key to users who need to connect.
connecting to the correct wireless network. Simply click on
the Wireless option on the left hand side and make sure there
Open the Network Manager by clicking the search bar and is a tick next to your own WiFi network. This is important as
typing Network, then press return. Click the Wireless tab on Ubuntu may be connected to an unsecured WiFi hotspot.
the left hand side (if you have more than one wireless device If you use a USB device to connect wirelessly, try reseating
select the one you’re not currently using), then the button it. If the wireless is built into your device e.g for a laptop make
marked Use as Hotspot. You will see a warning message sure that the wireless isn’t disabled as many portable
asking you to confirm that you wish to create the hotspot. computers have a key combination to do this.
The WiFi hotspot uses WEP for security which is If you are accessing folders on other devices over your
considered very insecure these days so make sure there is no network via Samba (See Sharing via Samba), you can
sensitive data on your machine before agreeing to use it as a experience username and password request, alongside read/ Quick
WiFi hotspot. write issues on certain folders or files. These options need to tip
be changed on the networked systems. Find more in-depth
Editing Connections On Windows 10 this is done via the Advanced sharing help with wireless
Ubuntu supports a number of other connections to networks settings. On Apple Macs follow the steps on the Apple troubleshooting
such as Bluetooth, DSL and VPN. If you do not know what Support page at https://support.apple.com/en-ie/ at http://bit.ly/
LXF26network
these are, it’s unlikely you’ll use them. Otherwise if you wish to HT204445 and change permissions for Everyone to Read and https://help.
add a new connection, click the network icon at the top right and Write to make sure the folder can be accessed without a ubuntu.com/
and choose Edit Connections. Click the Add button on the password. Note that as Apple has its own protocol for file community
right hand side to choose various types of connections. sharing it’s very important to enable support for SMB when
If you wish to connect to a VPN, bear in mind there are following the steps on the site.
several types. By default Ubuntu supports PPTP (Point to
Point Tunneling Protocol) which is commonly used by Click Add in
Microsoft systems. Your VPN provider however may use the the Network
OpenVPN standard which is generally considered to be more Connections
menu to choose
secure and reliable. To enable support for this open Terminal
a connection.
from the search bar and run the command:
VPNs using PPTP
sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn-gnome
are supported
Press Y to confirm you wish to proceed. The next time you by default, other
open the Network Manager you will see the OpenVPN option. connection types
Regardless of which connection type you choose the can be installed
wizard will guide you to enter the fields with the data given by manually.

Sharing Folders across your network

If you need to access folders on other holding Alt + F2 and inputting the ‘smb’ consider using a cloud sharing service like
machines in your home or workplace from address you were given by your Windows PC Dropbox to automate the process.
Ubuntu, Samba or SMB (System Message or Mac e.g smb://192.168.42.1 and press
Block) is a protocol that allows you to do this. return. You’ll see the folder icon has a picture
To get started, connect to your local of a network cable to allow you to easily tell the
network on the target device and enable difference between this and a local folder on
sharing of the folder(s) via SMB. Windows 10 your machine.
Users can find help with this in the Syncing Once you have been able to access the
and Saving section of Microsoft Support folder consider right clicking and using the
(https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/ Add Bookmark to make it easy to access it
products/windows?os=windows-10). Mac next time. Any changes you make inside this
OS users can find help on the Apple Support folder will be reflected immediately on the
page at https://support.apple.com/en-ie/ target device. Similarly any files you move into You may be asked for a username &
HT204445. here will exist on the other device only, not password when connecting via Samba.
On the Ubuntu machine select the Files your Ubuntu machine. Ubuntu can remember these details, or you
app then Other locations to see the remote If you need a way to make sure files are can tell the remote machine to allow anyone
folder. If it doesn’t appear right away, try kept the same across all devices at all times, to access your sharing folders.

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 System settings

Hardware:
Graphics
card drivers
Let’s take a long, hard look at the advantages and disadvantages of switching
graphics card drivers and what that actually entails.

O
ne of the most confusing aspects of switching from Closed source – or proprietary – drivers rely on the
Windows to Linux is understanding how drivers – manufacturer for updates to be delivered. The manufacturer
and in particular graphics card drivers – work. When may provide this functionality within the drivers themselves,
you install Ubuntu on your PC, you’ll notice it appears to or you may have to manually check the website to see if new
install the drivers you need for graphics to work perfectly, and drivers have been released.
indeed this is the case in the vast majority of cases. These
drivers are open source, designed to provide the key What’s available
functionality for any graphics card to work with Ubuntu. The major three graphics card manufacturers – Intel, NVIDIA
Because they’re designed to just work, many of these and AMD/ATI – all provide their own Ubuntu drivers. If you
Quick drivers aren’t interested in providing you with cutting edge plan to upgrade to the closed-source graphics drive, the first
tip performance. For day to day use – browsing the internet, thing to do is to identify your exact make and model of
To find out more word processing and even editing images – they’re perfectly graphics card – particularly if you have no idea who the
about your graphics adequate, but if you have a modern graphics card, and want manufacturer is. If you head over to System Settings and
chipset – including to take full advantage of its capabilities – particularly for gaming select Details, you’ll see a graphics section, but it won’t tell
its capabilities – – you’ll need to investigate the possibility of replacing them you much. Instead, open a Terminal window and type:
install mesa-utils
with dedicated drivers provided by the manufacturers. lspci | grep vga
from the Software
Centre. Once done, This second set of drivers – with the exception of drivers This will quickly list both manufacturer and model, which
simply open a for Intel graphics – are closed source, which means that while you’ll need in order to determine if a proprietary driver is
Terminal window they’re still free to install, you’re relying on the manufacturer available for your card.
and type the
for support. The open-source drivers that ship with Ubuntu
following: glxinfo |
grep render. are updated through Ubuntu’s own update tool, so they’ll NVIDIA and AMD
update organically with the rest of your system. If you have an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, then the
quickest way to see if a proprietary driver is available is by
opening System Settings, selecting ‘Software & Updates’ and
switching to the ‘Additional Drivers’ tab. If your card is
compatible, you should see – after a short delay – a list of
alternative drivers appear. Choose the latest version marked
‘proprietary, tested’ from the list and click ‘Apply Changes’.
When the process completes, reboot your PC.
Don’t be surprised if your card isn’t detected – if the
card is more than five or six years old, then it’s unlikely to be
supported. AMD’s support goes back to 2010 and the HD
5000 series, while NVIDIA cards date back to around the
same time with GeForce 400 series. At first glance, you’ll see
that NVIDIA does still provide links to legacy drivers for older
cards – see www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html – but these
won’t work with Ubuntu 15.10.
If your card is an older model, therefore, you’re stuck with
Intel’s graphics drivers are open source, unlike those provided by the open-source drivers – Nouveau for NVIDIA cards, and
NVIDIA and AMD, so need to be installed manually. Radeon for AMD cards. Don’t be too downhearted, both

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 System settings

Exploring the NVIDIA X Server interface

Display Configuration
Select this to tweak the resolution settings
for each monitor attached to your PC – click
a screen to select that monitor.

OpenGL settings
Access the ‘Image Settings’ slider from here,
where you can try and strike a different balance
between image quality and performance.

Antialiasing settings
This section allows you to configure the card’s
ability to smooth jagged edges and textures
when rendering 3D objects using OpenGL.

Thermal Settings Application Profiles PowerMizer

This provides a temperature gauge for your Advanced users can fine-tune the various settings Some cards support different performance states
graphics card – keep it open while you stress-test on offer for specific applications – typically games. – use this tab to view current settings and see if
the card if you’re worried about heat problems. Use the Help button to guide you. you can push the envelope if required.

provide more than basic functionality, with pretty decent 2D this happens with NVIDIA drivers, press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F1] to
and 3D acceleration. They also support most older chipsets drop to the shell. Log in using your username and password, Quick
stretching back more than a decade. There’s no need to then enter the following command: tip
install them either – if your card is correctly detected, the sudo ubuntu-drivers devices To avoid any worry
driver should already be in place. Visit https://nouveau. This identifies which graphics drivers are installed. when considering
freedesktop.org/wiki/ and https://help.ubuntu.com/ Assuming it reveals NVIDIA drivers, enter the following installing new
community/RadeonDriver respectively for full details. command next: drivers, take a drive
image following the
If you’re lucky enough to be able to use the proprietary sudo apt-get autoremove –purge nvidia-*
before you install
driver, then not only do you gain performance enhancements Follow the prompts to purge the drivers from your system. the drivers, allowing
for gaming and other high-end purposes, you’ll also be able Now add the following command: you to roll back
to tweak your card using either the Catalyst Control Centre supt apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau should the
worst happen.
(AMD) or NVIDIA X Server utility – see the annotated Once done (don’t worry if it tells you it’s already present),
screenshot for details of using the latter. type sudo reboot and you should hopefully regain access to
your desktop.
Intel chipsets AMD users should try the following lines instead:
If your PC has an Intel processor and utilises its onboard sudo apt-get autoremove –purge fglrx-*
graphics chip, you may be able to install the open-source Intel supt apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
driver, which is found at https://01.org/linuxgraphics. At While they’re the most likely solutions, we’re sorry to say
time of writing, the latest available driver is 1.4.0, which is that these may not work – if this is the case, you’ll need to
designed for Ubuntu 15.10 and supports the following Intel Google your problem to try some of the other suggestions
graphics chips: 2nd-6th generation Intel Core processors, Bay on offer.
Trail, Braswell and Hoxton Intel Celeron processors and the
Intel Atom N450 (Pine Trail) chipset.
If your processor fits the bill, click the link under ‘Latest
download’, then choose the 32-bit or 64-bit version depending
on your Ubuntu build – if you don’t know this, open up
System Settings and click Details, then check the ‘OS type’.
Click the link to save the .deb file to your hard drive (or opt to
open it in Software Centre if prompted). If necessary, double-
click the file and click Install, then follow the prompts to install
the utility. Once done, open the Dash and type ‘Intel’ to locate
the graphics installer. Again, follow the prompts and if your
chipset is correctly identified, click Install to add the driver.
Reboot when prompted, and you’re done. There’s no
separate graphical configuration utility – instead, use Screen
Display under System Settings to tweak your card’s settings.

Troubleshooting
Sadly, not all driver updates are successful, and you can find Switching to proprietary graphics drivers is actually quite simple –
yourself locked out of the Ubuntu desktop if one goes awry. If assuming your card is supported, of course.

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Malware: Linux
virus protection
You wouldn’t dare fire up Windows without a small arms pile of anti-virus
protection, but does Linux need the same protections?

I
f you’re moving to Linux from Windows then there’s one spend weeks developing an attack vector that can only be
thing you might be looking for and failing to find: anti-virus used on less than 2% of relatively secured PCs, verse over
software or these days anti-malware. When it comes to 90% of systems in all manner of precarious conditions.
Windows you can hardly move for people offering anti- The end result is that the total number of known Linux
malware packages, most new systems come installed with threats is around 59, none of which have caused a single
trials, while malware is so common even Microsoft includes outbreak in the wild. Contrast that with over 122 million (as
its own Windows Defender software to try and combat the reported in the Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2015) threats for
issue. So what about with Ubuntu and Linux? Windows systems. Don’t get blasé yet, Linux systems can be
You may have heard or if you do a quick search, might attacked in other ways, but first a little more on why Linux has
come across the line that Linux doesn’t need anti-virus dodged the malware bullet.
software. The truth is any computer system can be vulnerable
to a virus, malware or other security threats. It so happens Built safer
with Linux that for various reasons we’ll cover in a bit, the On the whole Linux has been engineered in a way that makes
ability for viruses to infect, run and spread are vastly reduced it hard for malware to infect a system, to run and then to
on Linux systems. propagate themselves or cause further damage. Part of this is
The biggest reason is Linux isn’t widely used by the Super User aka sudo and root mode that requires
consumers, virus and malware writers are motivated by additional permissions to cause any damage. Standard users
money – a very small number by fame – so this means they and by extension any malware can’t alter the system without
target the most widely used systems and those are Windows extra permissions. Windows introduced a similar system in
PCs running on around 90% of the world’s PCs. You wouldn’t Windows Vista and later versions.
The other major protection for Ubuntu and Linux is the
use of centralised repositories. Many Windows system
become infected by users downloading infected software
from dodgy websites and other sources, with Ubuntu and
most Linux distros almost all software comes from a centrally
managed and protected software repository.
Then there’s sensible and open update policies. Linux has
Linux does have
virus scanners, always quickly rolled out security updates as and when
available but you required, this has always been done in the open, so anyone
really don’t need can see and understand what the updates are doing. Due to
to use them. the open source nature of Linux distros when a system is

Password protection
The biggest threat the average user is in danger This enables you to take all your complex authentication to make it super secure. Both
of are hack attacks on their online accounts’ passwords with you and have the password make excellent choices and will keep you far more
passwords. Many people being human reuse manager log you into your various online services secure online.
passwords alongside using weak passwords. This and sites when you authorise it.
means if one account is hacked, the attacker can We’re going to recommend two systems the
hack a large number of your other accounts using first is https://keepersecurity.com this
the same password and username details. The combines a desktop program, browser plug in
best way to protect against this is to use a and mobile app for completeness. It also
password management system. In the past supports all the platforms you could want
people used offline password managers, which including Linux, OSX, Windows, Android and iOS.
are fine, but they don’t help in the modern mobile The second is https://lastpass.com this is a
world. The new generation of password managers browser and mobile app based system. It can tap Beef up your password security with a
live online as browser plugins and mobile apps. into Google Authenticator for extra two-factor suitable password manager.

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 System settings

What’s a malware?
Malware – a happy non-offensive term for any Spyware – This malware gathers a user’s code that spread by hiding inside of infected
“bad” software. Malware includes any software private data (financial info, passwords, applications and installers.
that harms a system, the user, data, or processes. usernames, etc.) and sends it to the spyware Zombies – A computer that is controlled by a
Many of the malware categories overlap like maker or other entity that will use the malicious hacker, trojan, or computer virus to
trojans and spyware. information. complete malicious tasks.
Trojan – A malware type that hide in apps to get Adware – Software that displays ads is Scareware – Malware that scares users into
into a user’s system or they act as a program considered adware. Not all adware is bad. downloading malicious software or paying money
themselves. This malware does not replicate. So a Worms – A replicating program that spreads to for the fix. It could pop up a message saying:
hacker could make a password manager that will other computers. Most rely on networks for “Your data will be deleted unless you pay $100” or
supposedly store users’ passwords and enter transportation. A virus attaches to programs and “Your computer is infected”, you’re then
them in for the user. Instead, the username, site, worms are standalone software. Viruses come on encouraged to pay money for a fantasy fix.
and password combinations are sent to the trojan programs that users download and worms break Ransomware – A more recent attack that locks
maker instead of storing the data – this would be in through the network. the computer and files and will not lift the
a spyware trojan. Viruses – Computer viruses are replicating restrictions until the user pays a ransom.

updated, it can be all updated. Under Windows separate

software packages have to take care of updating themselves,
but this extends to standalone software, codecs, drivers,
shared libraries, add-ons etc.
With Linux when the system is updated it’s all updated.
This is also done in a user friendly way, so updates can be
done when the user wants. A new Live Patch system can even
reduce the need to reboot too after a system update.

Scanners
Having said all that there’s still the potential risk of a viable
attack and frankly there are far easier ways to be hurt
financially through phishing and other online social
engineering attacks. So all the usual advice applies as much
to Linux as any other system: keep your system up to date,
don’t download software from untrusted sources, also don’t
run terminal commands from random sources, be wary
online and use an up to date browser.
There are also arguments for running anti-virus software Ensure you keep your systems up to date to avoid any new exploits.
on a Linux system as it will still get to interact with Windows
systems and the scanner could potentially intercept viruses
passing through your system or you inadvertently sudo apt-get install clamav
downloading one and passing it on. There’s other genuine To install the automated scanner type:
reasons such as a business requirement, scanning a Windows sudo apt-get install clamav-daemon
drive or network drive or to protect a virtual PC. It should automatically update, but you can force one with
The most popular on Linux is the free for personal use this, though it’ll likely fail as ClamAV locks the log:
ClamAV Antivirus. You’ll need to use the Terminal to install sudo freshclam
this but it’s easy enough, press Ctrl Alt T to open a Terminal. You can install a GUI front end through the Software
To install the base engine use: Centre or else type:
sudo apt-get install clamtk
To scan a file you can just use the GUI or from the terminal
to scan all the files and folders in your /home folder type:
clamscan -r /home
This recursively scans all the files in your default /home
folder (the default store) you can add a -i option to only
display infected files. So to scan all the files on a system use:
sudo clamscan -ri /
A full scan as with any system will take a while, you’ll also
likely get some errors, but don’t panic those are just read
issues not viruses!
So the main thing to take home is that a desktop Linux PC
is largely safe from old-school direct threats like viruses as
there simply aren’t any. However, you as an individual are still
vulnerable to having your online accounts hacked and falling
for social engineering scams. On a wider scale Linux when
used within online servers and Internet of Thing devices is
The basic interface for the ClamAV scanning system. also vulnerable to hacking attacks, but that’s another story.

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 System settings

Startup: Fixing
boot issues
It’s all gone wrong. Of course it has. Here’s how to resolve issues with non-
booting PCs without having to reach for the panic button (or a hammer).

If you’re struggling to get the Boot-Repair tool disc to

boot, experiment with the various fail-safe boot options.

case carefully and disconnect your internal drives too. If the

computer now boots to the splash screen, you can try
reconnecting the internal drives and trying again; if you’re
now able to boot to the login screen, shut down your PC and
start reconnecting your external peripherals to see if the
problem has cleared itself or can be targeted to a single
device, in which case try a different cable, or go online and

S
tart-up problems. That moment when – having Google for known boot problems involving that device.
expected yourself to be getting on with your day’s If you’re lucky, your motherboard will emit a series of
work or entertainment – you find yourself staring at a beeps or flashing lights you can use – again by enlisting the
cryptic error message, or even worse, a blank screen. No help of the internet – to identify the likely problem. This may
matter how many times you press reset or restart, the same involve replacing a component or something more drastic.
impenetrable barrier blocks your path. So, what can you do? If you’re able to get as far as your PC’s splash screen, but
Start-up problems come in all shapes and sizes, and they then your computer hangs or a ‘missing operating system’
can be difficult to track down. There are, however, some error message appears, then first think back to any recent
sound principles to use that will resolve many errors, and in changes. If you’ve overclocked your PC, eg, you should now
this tutorial, we’re going to look at the tools and techniques enter the system EFI or BIOS and look for the option to load
required to troubleshoot most start-up problems. You should fail-safe defaults. Try rebooting again.
start by examining how the boot process works (see The Boot If this fails, then the problem is likely to be with your hard
process box, right). This reveals that the boot process can be drive, and so the first places to look are the MBR and Grub.
split into three broad stages centred around the Grub 2 boot If Grub isn’t set to automatically appear when your PC starts,
loader: pre-Grub, Grub and post-Grub. Knowing this allows try rebooting while holding the Shift key or tapping Esc to
you to focus your troubleshooting efforts based on where in bring up the Grub boot menu to confirm it’s not able to even
the process the error or freeze occurs. load itself. Jump to the Boot-Repair tool section once you’ve
Let’s start at the beginning. You switch on your PC. verified it’s nowhere to be found.
If power comes on, but nothing else happens, chances are If Grub is able to load, but can’t find any bootable OS you’ll
you’ve a hardware issue to sort – if you recently poked find yourself with a number of scenarios: you may be
around the innards of your PC, then check everything is presented with a basic command prompt such as grub> or
connected correctly. If not, unplug all external devices except grub rescue>, which indicates one or more files required by
your keyboard and try again. If this doesn’t work, open the Grub are missing or corrupt. You may get a specific error

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 System settings

The Boot process

When you press your system’s power list of choices you see in the boot menu.
button, control is initially given to your Each entry basically identifies the drive,
PC’s EFI or BIOS, which starts its various partition and file that contains the Linux
components, performs basic diagnostics kernel, plus RAM disk file used by the
tests and attempts to find a bootable kernel as it boots. The entry will also
device, which is typically the first hard contain any additional parameters
drive. Once located, the BIOS or EFI looks passed to the kernel.
for the Master Boot Record (MBR) at the Control is now passed to the kernel,
very beginning of the drive, which has a which attempts to mount the root file
tiny program inside that loads the next system. This is a key moment, and if it
stage of the boot loader, reading a file (eg fails you may get a kernel panic, or things
e2fs_stage_1_5), which in turn is able to might grind to a halt. If successful, it’ll
load the Grub boot loader. A ‘missing create a single process to run the /sbin/
operating system’ error at this point upstart file (other distros use init) – if this
means you need your rescue disc for goes wrong, you’ll get a panic, it may halt
diagnostics as something is missing – again or drop you into a root shell. At this
either in Grub, the MBR or the drive itself. point, upstart starts running scripts and The Grub menu’s appearance is a critical point in
Once Grub loads successfully it reads a upstart events to start other services and the boot process – if your system gets this far your
file called menu.lst, which contains the eventually bring you to the logon screen. recovery options are greater.

message or frozen splash screen, or you may just see Grub create it, but have access to a Linux installation disc, use that
and nothing else, indicating it can’t even find the most basic in a live environment instead, then grab the Boot-Repair tool
Quick
information required to proceed. using the following commands:
tip
If you press c you may be able to enter the Grub Terminal $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair When you boot with
mode to perform basic checks and repairs – you can attempt $ sudo apt-get update your rescue media
inserted your PC
to manually initiate the boot by pressing Ctrl+X or F10, eg, or $ sudo apt-get install boot-repair
may automatically
use the set command to review current settings and change $ boot-repair detect and boot
basic settings such as the graphics mode. Visit http://bit.ly/ The Boot-Repair tool is focussed on those early boot from it; if it doesn’t,
Grub2Troubleshooting for a detailed guide to using Grub’s problems caused by the hard drive’s boot sector, MBR and look for an option
to bring up a boot
own troubleshooting tools, but remember that in most cases Grub. It basically provides a convenient and user-friendly
menu when your
the simplest fix is to use the Boot-Repair tool. graphical front-end to the tools required to fix many PC starts (typically
If the Grub menu appears, then the issue may lie with its problems. The tool offers a ‘Recommended repair’ option that a key like F11) to
configuration file if things immediately grind to a halt after promises to fix most frequent problems, or you can click select it manually.
you select a menu option, but if Linux does start loading ‘Advanced options’ to see what it can do and manually select Failing that, enter
the EFI or BIOS
before grinding to a halt, the problem will lie with your specific fixes without getting your hands dirty in the Terminal.
configuration to
operating system, in which case skip to the Post-Grub The step-by-step guide (see Tweak Boot-Repair tool Settings, set it as the first
troubleshooting section (see the next page). over the page) reveals what repairs and tweaks are possible, boot device.
but note the tool is context-sensitive, and some options may
Boot-Repair tool be greyed out or missing depending on your setup.
If you’re struggling to fix Grub issues by hand, or there’s no The tool automatically generates a log of your system and
sign of Grub on your system at all, then you’ll need to enlist what it attempts to do, which you can then share on the
the services of your rescue media and the Boot-Repair tool, Ubuntu user forums if necessary. Before attempting any
which works with all Debian-based distros, including Ubuntu. advanced tweaks on your own, it pays to try the
The Boot-Repair tool itself will launch automatically when recommended option first, then ask for help on the forums
you boot from a Boot-Repair tool disc, but if you’re unable to using the output logs generated – this will ensure you choose
the right option and don’t cause more damage.

Non-Grub boot issues

Your rescue disc will also come in handy should you not even
get as far as Grub loading. Once booted, verify the existence
and state of your hard drive. Open the file manager and see if
your partitions are visible and if you can access the files on
them – this is a good time to back up any precious files
before you proceed further.
If nothing shows up, check whether the hard drive has
been detected by opening the Disks utility from your Ubuntu
Live CD – if you’re using a Boot-Repair tool CD, you’ll need to
install the gnome-disk-utility through the Synaptic Package
Manager under System Tools. Once installed, open it via the
Accessibility menu. The Disks tool lists all physically attached
Give your hard drive the once-over when booting from drives – if yours isn’t visible, you may find the drive has failed,
your rescue disc to check it’s working as it should. in which case you’ll be reaching for your latest backup after

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 System settings

shelling out for a drive replacement, or starting again from

scratch with a fresh Ubuntu installation and new-found love of
backing up your system. Assuming your drive does show up,
select it from the left-hand menu where you can examine the
partition table plus check its physical health via its SMART
[Not all that smart – Ed] attributes. Don’t panic unless the
drive is deemed on its last legs, but do focus your next check
on the partitions themselves. If you run the Boot-Repair tool,
its recommended settings will include a full disk check, but
you can manually perform this check yourself using GParted,
which is on both rescue discs.
GParted enables you to see how your partitions are Ubuntu’s recovery mode lets you try various fixes when
arranged, as well as revealing which one is the boot. Right- Grub works, but Ubuntu no longer wants to.
click this and verify Mount is greyed out before choosing
‘Check to schedule a disk check using the fsck tool’. This will
check for and attempt to repair any problems it finds as graphical desktop doesn’t appear to be working correctly – it
soon as you click ‘Apply’, but it’s important the partition isn’t basically bypasses problems with your graphics drivers or X
mounted before the check is run. Also give it as long as it server to give you a failsafe graphics mode to troubleshoot
needs to complete – this could take hours or even days in your problem from.
some extreme cases, and cancelling or aborting will almost We’ve touched on fsck already – this will check the drive
certainly corrupt the partition. Make sure the check is run on for corrupt files, which can clear many errors, particularly if
all partitions on the boot drive. your PC crashed and has failed to boot since. The grub option
In most cases, assuming the drive isn’t physically isn’t relevant unless you’ve used Grub’s own recovery tools in
damaged or corrupt beyond repair, running these tests place of the Boot-Repair tool to get this far in the boot
should ensure you’re able to at least get Grub working again. process – selecting this will make your changes permanent.
Use the network option to re-enable networking, and the
Post-Grub troubleshooting root option to drop to the shell prompt, allowing you to
If you find that Grub appears to be working fine, but your troubleshoot directly from there. If doing so, be sure to mount
problems begin when you attempt to load Linux itself. the file system in read/write mode using the following
Try switching to verbose mode during boot by pressing the command: mount -o remount,rw /
Quick Esc key to see if any clues appear in the messages that scroll You can also pass temporary kernel parameters to Ubuntu
tip past (or if it hangs at a certain point). Make a note of these during the boot process, which may help in some scenarios.
System logs are a and do a search online for them for more advice. If this With your chosen operating system selected in Grub, press
valuable source of doesn’t happen, hold Shift at boot to bring up the Grub menu the e key to edit the kernel file. Scroll down to the line
troubleshooting if necessary, then select ‘Advanced options’ followed by beginning linux – parameters are added to the end of this
information – and
‘(recovery mode)’, which will launch Ubuntu in a minimal line after quiet splash . You’ll need to make sure that you
you can access
these from the state, plus mount the file system in read-only mode. If this is leave a space between each parameter. Once done, press
/var/log directory successful, after a succession of scrolling messages you Ctrl+x to boot with those parameters.
using your rescue should find yourself presented with the Recovery Menu, Note that any parameters you add here are temporary –
disc’s file manager offering nine options. in other words, they’re removed the next time you boot, so
or nano in a
shell. Look out in
The options are all pretty much self-explanatory – the you can experiment until you find a solution that works, then
particular for syslog, clean option may be of use if your hard drive is full, which can – if necessary – make it permanent by editing the Grub
and investigate cause boot problems. If your problems started because a configuration file (sudo nano /etc/default/grub).
the dmesg shell package failed to install properly, then dpkg will repair it and You can also pass parameters from the live CD
command too.
hopefully get things working again. The failsafeX option is a environment using the Boot-Repair tool using the ‘Add a
useful if you find yourself booting to a black screen or the kernel option’, which includes 15 common parameters that

Take a fail-safe backup

It may seem strange, but if you’re struggling with You’ll need a suitable backup device –
start-up issues, you should attempt to take a typically a USB-connected hard drive – and a
backup of your hard drive before you perform tool that takes a complete drive image of your
any repairs – this means if you mess things up system. The dd command-line tool can be used
completely you can always roll back your system from both Ubuntu and Boot Repair Tool live CD
to the state it was in when the start-up problem environments, but the backup drive needs to be
first manifested itself. at least the same size – and preferably – bigger
Of course, if you’re diligent and you back up than the drive you’re copying.
your system regularly, you could always simply At the other end of the complexity scale is
roll things back now to a working state, although Redo Backup & Recovery. You’ll need a blank CD
bear in mind there may be data loss involved if or DVD to burn its 261MB ISO file to, but it
your home folder is on the same partition as provides an easy to follow graphical UI. You’ll find Redo Backup & Recovery offers by far the
your Linux installation (as is the case with it at www.redobackup.org – or use the built in simplest way to make a fail-safe backup of
default Ubuntu installs). option covered earlier. your whole hard drive.

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 System settings

can help with troubleshooting. Examples of these include If things look particularly bleak, then you may have luck
acpi=off, which disables the ACPI system that’s known to reinstalling Ubuntu over the top of itself. Boot from the
cause random reboots or system freezes on certain PCs, and Ubuntu Live CD and choose the option to ‘Install Ubuntu’
nomodeset, which instructs Ubuntu to only load graphics when prompted. When you get to the ‘Installation type’ screen
drivers after the X environment has been loaded, and not you’ll be presented with a new option, pre-selected by default:
before. These temporary parameters can be passed to your ‘Reinstall Ubuntu…’
rescue disc too, in case you’re having problems getting that This option basically reinstalls Ubuntu without touching
working. Press [F6] at the initial boot screen to choose from your home folder or partition, which means not only should
the options on show. For more information on specific your documents and other files be preserved, but key settings
parameters, do an online search for the parameter or visit and many programs may be left alone too. It’ll also leave
http://bit.ly/KernelParametersList for a complete list. entries in your boot menu alone, ensuring you won’t lose
access to other operating systems.
Repair install What will be replaced are system-wide files, which will
There’s one last thing you can try from the Grub boot menu – hopefully root out any corrupt ones and get your PC up and
if your kernel has been upgraded, it’s possible to boot using an running again. Although it doesn’t affect your files, it’s still
older version of the kernel from the Advanced options screen good practice to back up the drive – or at least your home
under Grub. You’ll see each version of the kernel listed – try folder or partition – before you begin.
the previous version if you believe your boot problem is linked To ensure you don’t lose anything from your system,
to the latest kernel. If this works, you can make the version make sure you recreate all user accounts with the same login
you’ve used permanent by editing the Grub configuration file and password, including – of course – your own during the
– the simplest way to do this is by using the Boot-Repair tool. install process.

Tweak Boot-Repair tool settings

1 Main options 2 Grub location

The first tab offers a convenient button for backing up your current This tab allows you to specify which OS to boot by default in a multi-
partition table, boot sector and log – click this to copy this key boot setup. You can also choose to place Grub in its own separate
information. It’s also where you can reinstall Grub, restore the MBR and /boot partition if you wish – typically this is only needed on encrypted
choose whether to hide the Grub menu. If you think your filesystem is disks, drives with LVM set up or some older PCs. The final option
corrupt, tick ‘Repair file systems’ to have it checked and fixed. specifies which drive Grub itself will be placed (sda by default).

3 Grub options 4 Other tweaks

This section opens with options for making sure Grub is updated to its If the MBR options tab isn’t greyed out, use it to restore your MBR
latest version. There’s also three specific error fixes offered. You can from a backup and choose which partition gets booted from it. The
also add new kernel options to the Grub menu here, or purge all final Other options tab offers an opportunity for repairing Windows
previous kernels before reinstalling the last one. You may even see an files (irrelevant in most cases) and provides options for pasting a
option allowing you to edit the Grub configuration file directly. summary of your settings online for reference.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 93

 System settings

Help: How to
fix problems
Something not working? Something broken? Something confusing? The
Linux community is out there to dole out a little self help.

W
ith open source and Linux much is made of case. It’s not that people don’t want to help, but if the
community. The people that develop the software, question has already been answered, if you’ve not look to see
that create the documentation, that use it and if a bug has already been reported, or you’re after details that
maintain it, all of these and more come together to form a are explained in the standard documentation then people are
community around the software. This is usually centred going to point this out first rather than help.
around the program’s main website with forums, frequently
asked questions, standard documentation for the software, Using Ubuntu
social network accounts and more. This means that if you’re Our first calling point is getting help with just using Ubuntu
having problems using a standard feature, something isn’t itself, you’re going to find a lot of helpful pointers throughout
working like it should or perhaps you even want to suggest a this guide and we’d recommend looking out for our other
new feature there are places and people you can contact. Linux and Ubuntu Made Simple guides on sale in all good
Of course, no one likes people who demand things and shops and over at http://bit.ly/LXFspecial. Ubuntu
certainly in open source communities that is especially the provides basic help, open the Dash, type Help and click the
question mark.
This offers a basic guide to using different programs and
parts of Ubuntu itself, alongside how to workaround and fix
common problems. If you’re having difficulties just using
basic parts of Ubuntu this should be your first port of call. If
you’re having problems using specific programs within
Ubuntu then you should turn your attention to the built-in
help that’s offered by each application itself.
You can open the built-in help by pressing F1 while using
any program, and then there’s the Help > Contents menu that
all programs should offer. This provides the basic info you
Problems
working out need to use individual programs. A new element of getting
where something help with using these Ubuntu tools is YouTube, a modern
is? Try the built- trend is that many people have posted easy to follow video
in guide. guides to using all aspects of Ubuntu and other Linux tools.

Terminal help
We look at the Terminal on page 60 and if you’re If you find you’re getting too much text it’s option, this offers a more wordy description of
serious about wanting to use Linux more and possible to pass the output through a program what a command does, what you can use it for
really get to grips with it, the Terminal is called less, this enables you to scroll through the and what the various options are for.
something you are going to have to use now and text using the arrow keys and press q to quit. To
again. The truth is most of your Terminal use will do this you’d type <command> --help | less for
be copying lines supplied by others, so really it a more relaxed time.
shouldn’t be that intimidating. With that said For a more in depth explanation there’s the
getting help with using the Terminal is pretty man command, just type man <command
easy, it has a number of highly comprehensive name> and a fuller manual will be displayed,
help systems that we’ll explain now how to use. and yes you can type man man to get help on
You can basic help on any command by typing man. Usefully typing man intro produces an
<command name> --help this is a standard for introductory guide to using the Terminal, this
Linux commands. It’ll return a basic explanation includes the basics commands you will need day
of what the command does, what basic inputs to day life.
it’s expecting and a list of the options you can An alternative and often more friendly It’s hard to use for beginners but there’s
use with it, each explained in turn. approach is using the info <command> terminal plenty of help stored within the terminal.

94 | Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu

 System settings

Searching for help

Forums website
Get started by heading
over to https://
ubuntuforums.org
Keywords then use the top-right
Use a minimal number of words, Advanced Search link.
stick to the ones most relevant to
your problem.

Search titles only

We suggest switching to Search
titles only, this helps greatly narrow
down the number of returned posts.
Find Threads
It’s worth limiting
Search in Forum returned search to ones
Another excellent way to focus your with at least 2 replies,
search is limit it to only relevant it’s unlikely any with
forums here. less than this are useful.

Of course moving online opens up a world of potential common it’s highly unlikely you’re going to stumble upon
help. For Ubuntu specifically your first stop should be your specific issue very quickly. As an example the General
https://help.ubuntu.com where you’ll find an online version Help forum has over 322,000 threads, each having who
of the offline help manual you’ve already discovered. Clicking knows how many replies!
the Community Help Wiki link at the top will take you to a far Clicking the Advanced Search will greatly enhance your
more helpful area maintained by community contributors. ability to search for the problem you have, in the correct
This opening page provides a list of the more popular forum. Here are our top tips for a better search. To begin with,
topics such as installation, moving from another OS, basic the keywords that you choose need to be the most relevant,
applications and moving into help for specific types of so if you’re using Ubuntu 16.10 and you’re unable to write to a
hardware, activities and other versions of Ubuntu sometimes USB stick, limit your keywords to something like: “Ubuntu
known as flavours. The next step is to click the Other USB write error”. We also strongly suggest switching the
resources section, which takes you to https://help.ubuntu. Keyword setting to Search Titles Only, rather than matching
com/community/OtherResources area. Here you’ll find those keywords against the entirety of a post, just the title
links to lots of different online areas of help. words are used.
AskUbuntu is a newer system that enables people to ask Additionally use the Search in Forum option to limit any
one-off questions, have them answered and then have the search to just the relevant one. Taking the last search as an
answered ranked. It helps good answers get promoted for example you’d like limit it to Hardware and perhaps General
easier visibility, but before you post anything you should Help. We also suggest restricting returns to include at least
search to see if your question has already been answered. two replies, which is an indicator of a useful reply. You may
The IRC section refers to a live chat system, but you’re not want to try setting the Find Posts to A Year Ago and Newer, to
able to access it directly from the website. There are web- ensure you only get answers that are only a year old.
based IRC systems such as https://webchat.freenode.net, Of course you’re able to search more generally through
you’ll need to log in and join the #ubuntu channel, where if Google or similar search engines. You’ll find plenty of help in
you’re patient and polite you might find someone willing to many forums all over the internet, so keep searching and
answer your questions. asking you’ll find friendly people we promise.
Another area you can get human support but also a huge
database of fixed issues is the Ubuntu Forums over at
https://ubuntuforums.org or from the previous Other
Resources page. The Ubuntu forums have been running for
over 12 years and are often the first time new users interact
with other long-standing Ubuntu users. It’s advised to ensure
you search first to see if your problem has already been
answered, this will save everyone lots of time including
yourself. Of course be polite, don’t repost the same problem
across multiple sub-forums and try to provide as much
information as possible. Stating “my screen is blank” isn’t
really going to help anyone.
Finding help with the forums is best done through the
search tool in the top-right. You can dive into individual
sections of the forum such as Installation, General Help,
Hardware, but unless the issue is particularly timely or The Ubuntu Forums are the best place to get help on all manner of issues.

Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu | 95

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